st. Cloud, minn. - the golden bear men's basketball team (6-6, 4-1 nsic) suffered a difficult 68-46 loss to st. Cloud state (10-2, 5-0 nsic) in the first nsic game of 2009. sammy ricks was the only player to finish the game in double figures for scoring with 16 points. He also matched three players with a team high five rebounds. The golden bears are back in action next weekend, playing at bemidji state and minnesota duluth.

the loss for concordia university is the first conference blunder of the season and gives the huskies a bit of separation in the league standings. The teams went into saturday afternoon's play tied for first in the conference with perfect 4-0 records each.

while the golden bears saw difficulty shooting from the field, a major discrepancy in the rebounding column proved to be the game-changer in the first half. The huskies took down more than twice as many rebounds as concordia, 27-11 in the period.

the golden bears scored a season low 16 points in the first half of the game behind 7-of-24 shooting (29.2%). The huskies did not have an overwhelming offense (39.4% shooting), but took nine more shots from the field and also got to the charity stripe for ten shots. Scsu led 36-16 at halftime.

concordia improved it's shooting figures in the second half, but the huskies shot 48.0% from the field to lead by as many as 37 points in the game. sammy ricks was the only concordia player to score more than six points in the game, finishing with 16 after shooting 8-of-14 from the field.

the golden bears finished with a 32.3% average from the field. They were 2-of-22 from three-point range. The rebounding game was much improved in the second half, with the golden bears taking 23 boards to scsu's 19. The final margin had scsu up 46-34 on the glass.

matt schneck was a key contributor to an scsu offense that dominated play in the paint (34 points). Schneck finished with 24 points, shooting 9-of-13 from the field. He also had 14 rebounds, five of which came offensively. Brett putz came off the bench for 18 points and six boards in the husky effort. The team shot 43.1% from the field.