ST. PAUL, Minn. - Senior guard Keith Crockett converted seven of eight at the foul line in the final 50 seconds to help Concordia-St. Paul (13-6, 9-4 NSIC) held off a Southwest Minnesota State (9-11, 5-9 NSIC) second half comeback in a 74-67 win on Saturday evening at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears have now won a season-high five straight games while sending the Mustangs to a seventh straight loss. Concordia returns to the road next weekend against #8 MSU Moorhead (22-1, 13-1 NSIC) and Northern State (17-3, 11-3 NSIC) for one of the toughest road trips of the year. Concordia is on a 3-game road winning streak and is 4-0 against the NSIC North Division.

Crockett, a 54 percent free throw shooter entering the evening, made his first nine free throw attempts in the game and finished 11-12 at the stripe. He led Concordia with 16 points and added five assists and two steals.

The Golden Bears led by 13 points (67-54) with 1:45 to play when Nuni Omot slammed his second dunk on a Terez VanPelt fastbreak pass. Omot finished with 15 points on 7-9 shooting and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. VanPelt matched Crockett's five assists and added 11 points. Shea Mandli's 11 points off the bench gave the Golden Bears a fourth player in double-figures.


CU Men's BB vs. SMSU 1.24.2015 - Images by Justin Oakman

Southwest Minnesota State was able to chip the lead down to just four, hitting three three-pointers in the last 1:36 of play, but it was Crockett's foul shooting the preserved the win.

Joey Bartlett led SMSU with 22 points while Mitch Weg had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Concordia started the game strong, jumping out to early leads of 15-3 just six minutes into the game and opened it up to a 15-point lead, 22-7 with 11 minutes to play in the half. The Mustangs countered with a 19-4 run over the next five minutes and the Concordia lead hovered between two and seven the rest of the half with a 33-31 lead at the break.

In the second half, the Mustangs were able to grab a one point lead four times in the first five minutes before a 15-1 Concordia run over a six minute stretch gave the Golden Bears a 57-44 lead with 8:31 to play. The Golden Bears led by as many as 16 with 5:49 to play and the lead remained in double-figures until a Weg layup with 1:08 remaining finally cut the margin to eight, 67-59.

Concordia held a strong advantage in the paint, 40-24 and outrebounded the Mustangs 35-30.

The Golden Bears also committed only six turnovers on the night while forcing 11 which helped produce a 10-0 scoring advantage on the fastbreak and 11-4 on turnovers.

Mandli and James Healy helped Concordia's bench to a 24-6 scoring margin with Healy adding nine points.