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ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (5-3, 1-1 NSIC) embarks on its first Northern Sun road trip of the 2014-15 season, playing at Winona State (4-3, 1-2 NSIC) at 8 p.m. Friday at McCown Gym before heading to Fayette, Iowa to face Upper Iowa (6-2, 2-1 NSIC) on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Dorman Gym.

MINI PREVIEW: Concordia at Winona State
The Golden Bears have recently started to even the series with the Warriors, but it wasn't until WSU had rattled off 31-straight wins until Concordia finally broke through on December 6, 2008 with a win at McCown Gym. The two teams have split six meetings at McCown since, but Concordia is still just 3-40 against Winona State entering Friday's tilt.

It will be a solid battle between starting wings as junior Cole Olstad and sophomore Riley Bambenek lead their respective clubs in scoring. Olstad also happens to be one of Concordia's top defensive players (2nd in the NSIC with 1.9 steals per game) in a matchup that pits similarly long wings (Olstad 6-4, Bambenek 6-5) against each other. Olstad averages 14.5 points on a Concordia team that is geared towards offensive balance under first year head coach Joey James while Bambenek leads the Warriors with 15.6 points per game and shoots nearly as well from the arc (48.0%) as he does from the floor (49.4%).

Both teams are holding opponents under 40 percent from the field on the year overall, and neither team is averaging or allowing over 70 points per game, so the season trends would point to a low scoring affair in the 60's.

MINI PREVIEW: Concordia at Upper Iowa
While Concordia has fared better in recent years travelling to Winona State, the program has done even better in Fayette, Iowa at Dorman Gym. Concordia has won eight of its last nine trips to Dorman including four straight with its only road loss to Upper Iowa since 1978 coming in the 2009-10 season.

Just like last weekend, Concordia will square off against a low scoring opponent similar to itself on Friday night before looking to slow down one of the league's top offenses on Saturday. This week's difference is that Concordia will try to slow down a strong offense shooting at its own nets.

Upper Iowa enters the weekend leading the league in scoring (86.2) but providing the league's third worst scoring defense (75.4) and under a half point from being ranked 16th. The Peacocks get the job done offensively by volume, as their 45.0 percent team shooting is 13th in the league and their 35.9 percent three-point shooting is just 10th. They get extra possessions with a league-leading 9.0 steals per game and +7.9 turnover margin.

While the Peacocks take care of the ball well at second in the league with 8.5 turnovers and are forcing a league-high 16.4 per night, they'll find a formidable opponent in this regard in the Golden Bears.

Concordia is forcing 14.8 turnovers per game (5th, NSIC) thanks to 8.0 steals per game (4th) led by guards Olstad and Keith Crockett who each rank in the top five in steals individually.

More importantly, Concordia's lock down defense has the consistency necessary to shut down an opponent on the road as no one has scored more than 65 points on Concordia this year with the Golden Bears leading the league in scoring defense (59.0, 7th NCAA) which limits teams to more than 27 points per game less than UIU scores.

Concordia's putting a lid on the rim as well, ranked second in the country by holding opponents to 35.0 percent field goal shooting and a stingy 28.2 percent three-point defense that ranks first in the league and 21st nationally.

Lastly, Concordia's ability to rebound with a league-high 41.8 team rebounds per game and a +11.6 rebound margin which ranks 8th nationally will aid in maximizing possessions against a team that values taking them away.