ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (4-2) won its final non-conference contest 84-63 over North Central University (0-6) on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center behind a blistering first half shooting performance. Junior Mike Yahnke was 7-8 from the floor for a game-high 18 points, adding seven rebounds to lead six players in double-figures for Concordia.

The Golden Bears remain at home this weekend, hosting Wayne State on Friday at 8 p.m. and #11 Augustana on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Concordia's Northern Sun opening weekend.

North Central was led by Josh High, dropping in five three-pointers to lead the Rams with 17 points along with three steals as NCU forced 20 Golden Bear turnovers to help trim the margin from a 34-point second half lead to under 20 points before Concordia pushed it back to a 21-point victory.

Yahnke wasn't the only Golden Bear to be nearly perfect from the floor as redshirt freshman Nuni Omot was 6-7 from the field and 2-3 from three-point range for 14 points, four rebounds and three steals off the bench.

Yahnke and Omot were each perfect from the floor in five first half attempts as Concordia made 75.0 percent from the floor in the first half to take a 55-33 lead into the break. Concordia also hit seven three-pointers (.636) and was 6-7 (.857) at the foul line in a strong all-around shooting half.


CU Men's Basketball vs. North Central 12.2.2014 - Images by Justin Oakman

North Central made it difficult for Concordia to pull away early, though as the game was knotted at 12 just over five minutes in and within four at 23-19 with under 10 minutes to play in the first half.

The Golden Bears closed the half strong by going on a 20-4 run over nearly six and a half minutes of play to mount a 52-30 lead with just under a minute to play before the break.

Concordia extended the run into the second half to build the largest lead of the night, 72-38 with 14:37 to play when Omot delivered his second triple of the evening. Coincidentally, it was Omot who threw down a dunk to make it 34-26 in the first half to start the prolonged run.

Overall, it was a 40-12 stretch of basketball for Concordia that spanned well over a quarter of the game (12:52) to bury the Rams.

North Central had more fight left, though as it used defense to hold Concordia to just 12 points the rest of the way, getting the margin down 18 points twice in the process.

In the end, North Central became the first team to shoot at least 40 percent against Concordia's top-ranked field goal percentage defense in the country. Coming in holding teams to 31.9 percent from the floor, the Rams were able to hit exactly 40 percent (24-60) on the night and knocked down nine three-pointers although at a lower 31.0 percent rate (9-29) and also struggled from the foul line by hitting 6-17 (.353).

Concordia's first half shooting of 75.0 percent came back down in the second half, as the squad finished a solid 52.6 percent (30-57) offensively, and buried 10 three-pointers at a 41.7 percent rate. Concordia also converted well at the line, hitting 82.4 percent (14-17). Five different Golden Bears knocked down two three-pointers in the game.

Once again, Concordia's +15.0 season rebound margin produced a solid return as Concordia pulled down 43 rebounds to North Central's 24. Joining Yahnke on the glass with seven rebounds were guards Cole Olstad and Keith Crockett, who each scored 10 points and had four assists.

While the Golden Bears did commit 20 turnovers leading to a 26-16 deficit in points off turnovers to the Rams, they also converted 21 assists led by senior Terez VanPelt's eight with just two turnovers. VanPelt now has three games with six or more assists on the year and he added 10 points on 3-5 shooting including a pair of three's.

Concordia's sixth player in double-figures was sophomore James Healy who added 12 points off the bench.