Junior guard matt cadwell (st. Paul, minn.) drained 6-7 from three-point range and 7-9 from the floor and scored 26 points in 25 minutes to lead concordia university (st. Paul) to a 88-77 victory over st. John’s university (minn.) on saturday afternoon at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul.

the teams played to a 38-38 tie at the break but concordia rallied for 50 second half points. Cadwell scored 13 in each half for the golden bears.

the johnnies were led by brady brink’s game-high 39 points on 16-22 shooting including 3-3 from behind the arc while chris schwartz added 20 points on 7-14 shooting, 5-9 from three-point range. Schwartz also had seven rebounds and six assists in 37 minutes while brink did not leave the game, playing all 40 minutes for sju.

the golden bears put together a balanced scoring attack as three other players had double-figures and two more had eight. Sophomore forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) had 13 points while freshman forward matt hackl (seymour, wis.) poured in 11 points, hitting 3-4 from long range. Senior guard jason birr (burnsville, minn.) added 10 points and five assists in 26 minutes off the bench.

mike cunningham (so., g, minneapolis, minn.) had eight points and five assists while freshman forward chris pfeiffer (hopkins, minn.) had eight points and seven rebounds.

no one played more than heiman’s 29 minutes and eight players contributed at least 18 minutes and all ten players that played logged at least six minutes of action for concordia.

the golden bears shot 60.0% (30-50) from the floor for the contest and 63.0% (17-27) in the second half. From downtown, concordia was on, hitting 55.0% (11-20) to sju’s 40.9% (9-22). St. John’s, who shot 56.0% (14-25) from the field in the first half, dropped to 43.8% (14-32) in the second.

aside from brink and schwartz, the johnnies struggled to find contributions as the rest of the team was just 21.7% (5-23) from the floor and 10.0% (1-10) from three-point range.

concordia’s bench also held a distinct advantage, outscoring sju 25-6.

concordia will now turn their sights to the regular season. They open the 2007-08 schedule next friday and saturday, co-hosting the wildwood lodge tip-off classic with the women’s basketball team on nov. 16-17. Concordia will host peru state and macalester college on friday and saturday while wisconsin-river falls will be the crossover team with cu. Game times are 8 p.m. For concordia each night, with the other men’s games played at 4 p.m.

box score - csp 88, st. John's 77