st. Paul, minn. - the concordia university men's basketball team looked strong in their season opener tonight at gangelhoff center, posting a 25 point win, 84-59, over the university of wisconsin-parkside, dropping the rangers to 1-2 on the year. Junior forward matt hackl (seymour, wis.) led four golden bears in double-figures with 15 points as he dropped in five three-pointers off the bench. box score

the golden bears had a considerable size advantage in the front court and it showed, with cu outrebounding uwp 44-32 and holding a 28-18 scoring advantage down low.

sophomore forward brent barz (johnston, iowa) led concordia's posts with a double-double scoring 11 while grabbing 12 boards. In only 12 minutes off the bench, junior forward dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.) had four points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks along with a thundering first half dunk.

concordia lit things up from outside as well, knocking down 13 three-pointers with hackl's five while senior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) knocked down four of them. Heiman finished with 14 points, all coming in the first half as helped the golden bears mount a 40-23 lead at the break.

later in the game, freshman isaiah thomas (fridley, minn.) contributed to the long range shooting with a pair of three's in his three minutes late in the contest.

no one clocked more than 30 minutes for the hosts in the contest, something that rarely happened a year ago. The golden bears also had 24 assists on their 31 field goals compared to uwp with just nine on their 22 makes.

the rangers were led by grant johnson's 13 points while zach blesich added 10.

concordia will play their second contest on tuesday, november 24 at 7:00 p.m. When they host valley city state in non-conference action.