collegeville, minn. - junior point guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) nearly recorded a triple-double with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to lead a balanced scoring attack for concordia in a 81-78 exhibition victory at st. John's university on saturday afternoon. box score

concordia led by as many as 14 points midway through the second half in what was actually a pretty tight contest featuring six ties and 12 lead changes. Concordia didn't make field goal in the last five minutes as they held on for the victory.

cunningham was nearly perfect, hitting 6-8 from the floor and 8-8 at the line and made his only three-point attempt. His eight assists helped concordia reach five players in double-figures for scoring, including cunningham.

junior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) scored 16 points and had five assists while shooting 7-15 from the field. Junior sammy ricks and senior matt cadwell scored 15 and 12, respectively with ricks collecting three steals.

off the bench, sophomore matt hackl (seymour, wis.) had 10 points while junior quentin barfield had eight rebounds - five offensive.

concordia came out strong in the first half, shooting 50.0 percent in 32 attempts from the floor while burying 41.7 percent from downtown, hitting five of 12 and were 5-6 at the line for a total of 42 points, leading by seven at the break.

for the game, cu shot 49.1 percent from the floor and hit 9-22 three-pointers and had assists on 20 of their 28 field goals, an impressive rate.

they committed only 10 turnovers and forced seven steals.

the golden bears close out their exhibition season next friday night at the university of minnesota in the nabc classic. The game against the gophers will be minnesota's regular season opener but will count as an exhibition for concordia. The golden bears open their regular season the next day against georgia state and face bowling green in the last day of the classic at the barn.