ST. PAUL, Minn. - Tonight, Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (3-2) plays its final non-conference contest against North Central University (0-5) at 7 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center. The game opens a three game homestand this week as the Golden Bears begin NSIC play this weekend by welcoming Wayne State on Friday at 8 p.m. and Augustana on Saturday at 6 p.m.

ONLINE COVERAGE
All home games and all Northern Sun contests will be available to view online, courtesy of the NSIC's agreement with Stretch Internet. Home games are streamed through Stream Powered Productions with play-by-play from the voice of the Golden Bears, Dan Flanagan. Color commentary is provided in select contests by JW Cox. Live stats are displayed in the GameCentral video portal, but a traditional version of live stats is also available.

SERIES HISTORY: Concordia 48, North Central 13
Concordia holds a significant advantage in the all-time series, winning 48 of the previous 61 meetings including 13 in a row. North Central's last win over Concordia was in the 1992-93 season, when Concordia was known as the Comets and an NAIA member. Since Concordia went Division II in 1999-2000, the Golden Bears have won all five contests by at least 13 points and four of the five by at least 35 points. The teams have not met since December 3, 2007, a 92-43 Golden Bear win at Gangelhoff Center.

ABOUT THE RAMS
North Central is off to an 0-5 start with the closest margin being a 7-point defeat at home to Macalester. The Division III program has yet face a Division II foe this year and is coming off an 87-68 loss at Wabash last Tuesday. The Rams average 39.2 percent from the floor while allowing opponents to hit at 50.9 percent which has led to an average score of 63.2-75.0. The Rams are also getting out-rebounded 39.0-32.2 on the year.

Luke Chafin (14.6) and Trais Voigt (13.4) lead North Central in scoring while Chafin adds 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Joel Cline leads the club with 5.6 rebounds per game, adding 6.4 points and Jordan Harrell scores 9.0 points and 5.4 rebounds.

GOLDEN BEAR TEAM DEFENSE AMONG NATION'S ELITE
Through five games, Concordia's defense has been consistent and outstanding against a balanced scheduled that has featured two Division II opponents from the MIAA, a Division III, an NCCAA member and a Division I team coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance. Further, they've played on a neutral court, at home and on the road.

With the varying level of opposition, the Golden Bear defense and rebounding has remained consistent. The Golden Bears have yet to allow an opponent to shoot 40 percent in a game and have yet to allow more than 64 points in a contest. Concordia has only dropped the rebounding margin in a game once.

When it's all added up, Concordia ranks first in the country in field goal percentage defense (31.9), fifth in scoring defense (57.0), seventh in rebound margin (+15.0) and 22nd in three-point field goal percentage defense (27.9).

OLSTAD LEADING THE SQUAD IN SCORING
Junior Cole Olstad has returned to form after his medical redshirt season in 2013-14, averaging a career-high 15.2 points which is 0.1 higher than his sophomore year with a 15.1 scoring average. He's also matching his career-high rebounding rate from that year at 5.0. He's coming off his top two scoring efforts of the year, putting up 24 points with eight rebounds a week ago against Northland before scoring 19 points with five rebounds at Milwaukee. He's scored in double-figures in each of the last four contests, putting up at least 13 points in each of those outings.

VANPELT DISTRIBUTING THE SUCCESS
Senior Terez VanPelt has been improving his distribution this year, averaging 3.6 assists per game and coming off of a 6-to-1 assist-turnover ratio at Milwaukee. He also had seven assists and two turnovers against Crossroads with a season-high 16 point performance sandwiched in between against Northland, showing a dual threat while running the point. In his career, he's shown ability to score or dish with ease as he's just one of two players in program history with 1,200-plus points and 200-plus assists. He's currently at 1,262 points and 273 assists in 85 career games.

SCORING DISTRIBUTION
With VanPelt distributing, the Golden Bear scoring has been more spread out behind Olstad. Through five games, Olstad is the only player averaging in double-figures but seven others are averaging at least 6.6 points per game, and four players average between 8.4 and 9.8 per contest. Eight players have hit double-digits in a game and three different players have led the team in scoring on the year. Concordia's second and third leading scorers, James Healy and Nuni Omot come off the bench and are each averaging 9.4 points. Healy hits at a 43.3 percent rate from three-point range (13-30) while Omot is solid inside at 57.6 percent from the field (19-33).

DOUBLE DOUBLES
Concordia has already topped its double-double total from last season as Nuni Omot has a pair and Mike Yahnke has the team's third. Last year, Cordell Smith had the only two double-doubles for the squad. Omot had back-to-back double-doubles to earn NSIC South Division Player of the Week honors with 21 points and 12 rebounds against Crossroads and 10 points and 14 rebounds against Northland. Yahnke had 11 points and topped Omot with 15 rebounds in the Northland victory, falling just two rebounds shy of the single game record.  Omot is averaging 9.4 points and a team-high 8.2 rebounds while Yahnke is averaging 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds.

CROCKETT FILLS THE STAT SHEET
Senior guard Keith Crockett has been solid in a number of ways throughout the non-conference season, averaging 6.8 points, 3.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals while hitting 56.5 percent (13-23) from the floor and 50.0 percent (3-6) from three. He's had at least three rebounds and two assists in every game and has had a pair of three steal games. He had season-highs of 13 points and seven rebounds with three steals and three assists in the win over Lindenwood on 5-7 shooting including 2-2 from the arc. On Saturday at Milwaukee, Crockett had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

MONROY & MANDLI CONVERTING INSIDE
Posts Josh Monroy and Shea Mandli have been outstanding inside, combining to shoot 64.9 percent (24-37) from the floor while averaging 13.4 points as a tandem. Monroy averages 6.8 points and 5.0 rebounds on 64.7 percent (11-17) shooting while Mandli averages 6.6 points and 3.4 rebounds on 65.0 percent (13-20) shooting. Monroy had his season-high of 14 points and eight rebounds in the win over Crossroads while Mandli had back-to-back double-digit scoring games with 11 points, four rebounds and five assists against Crossroads and 10 points and five rebounds against Northland.