Men's Basketball | 11.18.14

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team will hold its home opener this Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Crossroads College and host a second home game against Northland College on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The games will be available to watch online, courtesy of Stream Powered Productions with play-by-play from Dan Flanagan and color commentary by JW Cox (Saturday). Those unable to attend or watch online can follow on live stats.

About the Golden Bears
The Golden Bears enter play 1-1 on the year after splitting a pair of non-conference, in-region games at the Las Vegas Tip-Off last weekend. Concordia fell in the season opener 61-52 to Emporia State before rebounding with a 62-59 win over Lindenwood.

Concordia held the opposition to sub-40.0% shooting in each game and held decisive rebounding advantages at +12 and +8. While the offense didn't put many points up, averaging 57.0 per game, Concordia shot the ball considerably better than the opposition with a 47.3% weekend shooting percentage including 50.0% in the win over Lindenwood.

Concordia will look to improve a few areas offensively, though as the team shot just 23.5% (4-17) from behind the arc and 57.9% (22-38) at the foul line including 50.0% (13-26) in the loss to Emporia State. Concordia will also look to take better care of the basketball with 18.0 turnovers per game over the weekend including a 4-to-22 assist-to-turnover ratio in the ESU loss.

An early season emphasis on a balanced offense has taken form under first year head coach Joey James as the team is led in scoring by junior Cole Olstad with 10.0 points per game followed closely by junior Mike Yahnke (9.5) and senior Keith Crockett (8.5). In all, seven players averaged at least five points per game.

About Crossroads
The Knights enter play at 1-6 on the year with the lone win over Lincoln Christian (90-77) in the Grace Bible Tournament in Grand Rapids, Mich. where they dropped their other contest 91-85 to Kuyper. Most recently, Crossroads fell 85-65 at Jamestown on Saturday after falling to crosstown rival Rochester Community and Technical College last Tuesday, 88-60 at RCTC.

The Knights are averaging 72.4 points per game but allow 86.7. Freshman forward Isaac Bowles leads the team with 12.4 points and is shooting 50.7 percent from the floor while pulling in a team-high 5.6 rebounds.

Crossroads is a provisional member of the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) and af ull member of the ACCA (Association of Christian College Athletics). The Knights will be counting Wednesday's contest as an exhibition, while Concordia will use it as a regular season game.

About Northland
Concordia is 15-29 in the all-time series with the Jacks but they have not faced each other since Concordia left the UMAC and NAIA ranks for the NSIC and NCAA Division II membership for the 1999-2000 season. Northland captured the win over Concordia in the last meeting between the programs at Gangelhoff Center 75-73 on February 20, 1999 to snap Concordia's three-game winning streak in the series. Concordia is 5-7 in home games against Northland with the last home win in the series coming on January 21, 1994. The two teams have a postseason history in either the NAIA Division II Midwest Region (District) Tournament or the NLCAA/NSCAA Tournament with Northland holding a 4-2 record in the postseason series.

This year, the Jacks are 1-0 with an 87-64 home win over Marantha Baptist on Saturday in Ashland, Wis. Zach Ringhouse led four players in double-figures with 20 points while Dan Campion had 15 points and eight assists with just one turnover. Thomas Whiting had eight points and nine rebounds to lead the inside efforts. Northland shot 50.9% (29-57) from the floor in the win and buried nine three-pointers (9-23) while converting 20 of 21 free throws.

The Jacks will travel to Taylor Center in Mankato, Minn. to face Minnesota State this Friday night at 7 p.m. prior to coming to Gangelhoff Center to face Concordia.

Northland College remains a member of the Upper Midwest (UMAC) conference, which has recently transitioned to NCAA Division III membership between 2002 and the 2008-09 academic year when the transition was completed.