ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (3-1) picked up its third straight win on Saturday night, defeating Northland College (1-2) 96-42 at Gangelhoff Center behind a balanced offensive effort with six players in double-figures. Concordia returns to the floor after Thanksgiving with a 3 p.m. road tilt at Milwuakee next Saturday on ESPN3. Junior Cole Olstad led all players with a season-high 24 points, adding eight rebounds.

The Golden Bears also crushed the Lumberjacks in the paint with a 60-28 rebounding margin and a 56-10 scoring advantage inside. Junior Mike Yahnke collected a career-high 15 rebounds, missing the school record by just two, while Concordia's 60 team rebounds also missed the school record by a pair.

Defense was the key as Concordia held Northland to 21.2% shooting (14-66) for the night and an even stingier 16.1% (5-31) first half mark as they led 52-16 at the break. Concordia has yet to allow an opponent to hit at 40% for a contest on the year.


CU Men's Basketball vs. Northland College 11.22.2014 - Images by Justin Oakman

The 46-point halftime margin would continue to expand as Concordia led by as many as 59 late in the second half. The Lumberjacks never led in the game as Concordia scored the first seven points of the contest. When Northland trimmed the lead to 10-7 nearly seven minutes into play, Concordia went on a 20-1 run over a minute stretch to bury the contest.

Olstad scored his 24 points on 8-15 shooting including 7-7 foul shooting.

While Yahnke led all players with 15 rebounds, redshirt freshman Nuni Omot was next in line with 14. Both players had double-doubles as Yahnke had 11 points and Omot 10.

Concordia's rebounding margin, a +32 for the night, was nearly double an already impressive season average margin of +15.3 entering play.

Senior Terez VanPelt scored a season-high 16 points while sophomore James Healy scored 14 off the bench on four three-pointers as he's knocked down 10 over the last two games. Junior Shea Mandli joined the double-digit club with 10 points on 3-4 shooting, knocking down all four free throw attempts while hauling in five rebounds.

Collectively, the Golden Bears shot 52.2% (36-69) on the night, but were lights out in the first half at an even 60.0% (18-30). More importantly, they hit 85.7% (18-21) at the line where they entered play at just 59.6% on the year.