ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at 3 p.m., Concordia-St. Paul (3-1) will travel to the University of Milwaukee (2-4) at UWM Panther Arena on ESPN3. The Golden Bears put their three game winning streak on the line against the Division I member Panthers of the Horizon League.

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Saturday's game will be aired live on ESPN3 and locally in the Milwaukee area on WISN-AM 1130 with play-by-play handled by Bill Johnson. Live stats will also be availalble, courtesy of UWM athletics.

SERIES HISTORY: UWM 2, Concordia 0
The Golden Bears have faced the Panthers twice in regular season play, each time in Milwaukee. The last time the clubs faced in regular season play was November 25, 2003 with the Panthers picking up a 90-62 win. The teams played two years earlier on November 17, 2001 in a 77-63 Panther victory. Milwaukee lists the series history as 3-0 in favor of the Panthers as the last time the clubs met was November 13, 2009 in a game that Concordia used an exhibition but was counted as an official game for the Panthers. In that game, Milwaukee picked up an 89-73 win.

COMMON OPPONENT FACTOR: Minnesota Crookston
Earlier this month, the Panthers hosted another Northern Sun opponent in Minnesota Crookston. The Panthers dispatched the Golden Eagles 75-54 on November 17. The Golden Eagles trailed by just 10 at the break but couldn't keep pace with Milwaukee in the second half. Concordia and UMC have one common opponent as well, as the Golden Bears beat Crossroads 108-59 before Crossroads took UMC to overtime in Crookston, falling 83-79 to the Golden Eagles.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
Milwaukee enters play with a busy month of November as Saturday's contest will be the sixth for UWM in a 13-day span and will be the third this week as Milwaukee split a pair of games at the MGM Grand Main Event in Las Vegas, Nev. UWM defeated UL-Lafayette 56-52 on Monday before falling 69-66 to Oral Roberts on Wednesday night.

While the Panthers have had a full schedule and might have a fatigue factor on Saturday, history suggests that Milwaukee is able to handle non-Division I compeition. UWM has never lost to a non-DI opponent under 10th year head coach Rob Jeter in 10 prior regular season affairs. The last non-Division I loss for the Panthers was to Tri-State on December 20, 1998 - a full year before Concordia was a Division II member.

Milwaukee has been a quality Horizon League program under Jeter, who has a 152-145 career record in 10 years. In nine prior campaigns, Jeter has directed the Panthers to the postseason four times including a pair of NCAA Tournament berths. Last year, UWM posted a 21-14 record and the program has posted winning records in five of the last six years. Last year's season was the best turnaround in the country at the Division I level with a 13-win improvement in the win column.

The Panthers are led by one of the top players in the Horizon League in senior Steve McWhorter who is averaging 18.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.8 steals and nearly a block per contest. He's shooting efficiently at 54 percent (34-63) and from three at 40 percent (10-25).

In Milwaukee's two victories, they hold opponents to a 53.0 scoring average and 34 percent (37-110) shooting. However, in their four losses, the Panthers allow 76.0 points on 46 percent (96-207) shooting. The Panthers have won seven straight when holding opponents under 60 points.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS: Defense & Rebounding
Concordia is currently riding a three game winning streak after dropping the season opener to Emporia State in Las Vegas. In Concordia's four games this year, the Golden Bears have yet to allow an opponent to shoot 40 percent in a game and are holding opponents to just 32.0% shooting on the season and a 55.2 scoring average. Emporia State is the only team to break 60 points against Concordia's tough early season defense, scoring just 61 in the opener. Additionally, opponents are shooting just 25.5 percent (26-102) from the arc and have committed at least 14 turnovers in every game.

While the defense has been lights-out, the club's effort on the glass has rewarded the strong defensive effort. On the year, Concordia has won the rebounding margin by at least eight in every game while averaging 46.8 to 27.3 for a +19.5 margin. On the offensive boards, Concordia has pulled down 53 on the year while limiting opponents to just 29, which are even more impressive totals considering Concordia is shooting 51.3 percent while opponents are hitting 32.0 percent - providing more opportunities for second chances to the opponents.

HEAD COACH JOEY JAMES
(3-1 in 1st year at Concordia; 15-19 in 2nd year overall)
In his first year as head coach of the Golden Bears, Joey James has the club playing with a high level of energy, effort and teamwork. Aside from the eye test, the results have shown up on paper as the team has put together its first 3-game winning streak since the 2012-13 team won 5-straight. It's the second straight 3-1 start to a season and the fourth in the last five years for the club. James led the Golden Bears to a 108 point effort (108-59) in a win over Crossroads last week which was the first 100-plus point game for the program since February 13, 2010 in a triple overtime win over Southwest Minnesota State (109-104) which snapped a streak of 113 games without reaching the century mark.

James joined Concordia in the spring of 2014 after spending last season as interim head coach at the University of South Dakota, a Division I program in the Summit League. He posted a 12-18 overall record and 6-8 mark in the Summit League in his first year as a college head coach. He led the Coyotes to a 10-3 record at home in the DakotaDome and put together a 5-game midseason winning streak along with a pair of 3-game winning streaks, one early in the year and another late.

In addition to James' experience as interim head coach, he served USD as the program's top assistant for 11 years prior to the promotion. He also played for the Coyotes when USD was a Division II member from 1997-99 and helped the program transition to the Division I level as an assistant coach. In his 12 total seasons as assistant or interim head coach at USD, the Coyotes put together a .622 winning percentage (225-137) including seven-straight 20-plus win seasons and two league championships.

OMOT DOUBLES DOWN
Redshirt freshman Nuni Omot has made an immediate impact for the Golden Bears as a key reserve. He's coming off of an NSIC Player of the Week performance as he averaged 15.5 points and 13.0 rebounds with a pair of double-doubles in two Concordia wins. He shot 73.7% (14-19) from the floor on the week. The double-doubles were the first of his career and equal the amount of double-doubles registered by the entire 2013-14 roster.

On the season, Omot leads the Northern Sun in rebounding (9.5) while averaging 11.0 points, second on the team while hitting 62.1 percent (18-29) from the field.

OLSTAD RETURNS TO FORM
A year ago, junior Cole Olstad went down with an injury after six games and didn't return and later was awarded a medical redshirt. He's quickly returning to form in 2014-15, leading the team with 14.3 points per game while adding 5.0 rebounds and seven steals in four games. He's also connected on 93.8 percent (15-16) of his free throws, leading the team in both free throws made and attempted.

In his career, Olstad has scored 700 points (11.3 ppg), is a 78.5 percent career free throw shooter and 37.2 percent from three-point range. In his last full season in 2012-13 as a sophomore, Olstad averaged 15.1 points and 5.0 rebounds. Last year before the injury, Olstad was averaging 12.8 points and was 17-18 at the foul line.

VANPELT CLIMBING CAREER SCORING CHARTS
Senior Terez VanPelt, a two-time All-NSIC Second Team selection and the only active two-time all-league player in the 16-team Northern Sun continues to climb the career records. He's only the second player in program history with at least 1,200 career points and 200 career assists and is one of six players to reach 1,000 points and 200 assists. With 1,253 points, VanPelt ranks seventh in program history in scoring and trails Kyle Timmer by 42 for sixth place. his 267 career assists are fifth all-time and he holds the single season and career records for free throws made and attempted. His 521 points scored as a sophomore were second most in program history and last year's 489 rank eighth in a season.

This year, VanPelt is off to a slower start in scoring with 8.3 points per game, but the offense has been more balanced with nine players scoring at least 6.0 points per game. VanPelt is tied for the team lead with 3.0 assists per game and has still been getting plenty of looks with 35 field goal attempts, second on the team.

OLSTAD & VANPELT FREE THROW MARKSMEN
Senior Terez VanPelt entered the season having made 30-straight free throws, extending the streak to 31 before it was snapped in the third game of the year against Crossroads. VanPelt holds the school records for most free throws made and attempted in a season (168-201 in 2013-14) and career (368-443) while making them at a high rate, 83.1 percent over his career. He's made at least 81 percent each of his first three seasons although as a senior he's connected on just 5-of-8 (.625).

Olstad doesn't have the same 31-free throw streak as VanPelt but he's hit 32-of-34 between the first six games of last season and the first four of this season. After a freshman year hitting 62.8 percent (27-43), Olstad has hit at least 80 percent each year since.

YAHNKE CRASHES THE BOARDS
Junior Mike Yahnke has averaged 7.8 rebounds per game while adding 9.5 points, both eclipsing last year's career highs of 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds - all in just an addition 1.3 minutes of playing time as he averages 21.8 minutes per game through four games. He pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds along with 11 points for his first double-double as a Golden Bear against Northland College. The 15 rebounds were just two shy of the program single game record. He's scored at least eight points and shot at least 50.0 percent in every game this year.

HEALY HEATS UP THE ARC
Sophomore James Healy has provided a necessary three-point threat to this year's club. This junior college transfer has converted 44.0 percent (11-25) from the arc, making over half of the team's 20 three-pointers on a club that is otherwise hitting just 23.7 percent (9-38) collectively. Healy's addition pushes the squad to a 31.7 percent three-point shooting team. He knockced down 10 of his 11 season three-pointers made in last week's two contests, hitting 6-of-13 against Crossroads for a 20-point performance. On the year, he's averaging 9.8 points per game but put in 17.0 per game last week.