ST. PAUL, Minn. - For the second straight night, three-point shooting played a crucial role in the final outcome as Concordia-St. Paul (2-7, 0-4 NSIC) dropped a 103-80 loss to Upper Iowa (6-7, 2-3 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
It was Day of Heroes night at Gangelhoff Center where the department presented a scholarship to ROTC Cadet Malcuit and honored Disney Spirit Award winner Hank Goff at halftime.
Concordia will hit the road next Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip at Minnesota State in Mankato, Minn.
CU Men's BB vs. Upper Iowa 12.12.15 - Images by
Justin OakmanUpper Iowa knocked down 15-26 (57.7%) from behind the arc led by the breakout performance from freshman Elliot Kane who made 7-11 three-pointers with all 11 of his shot attempts being from distance as he finished with 21 points.
The Peacocks built a 50-37 lead at the break, hitting 9-16 from the arc compared to Concordia's 0-5 mark. The Golden Bears would miss the first three-point attempt of the second half as well before redshirt freshman
Matt Ambriz snapped the weekend dry spell for the squad with a three-pointer at the 15:37 mark to make it an eight point game, 56-48. Prior to the three by Ambriz, Concordia missed its first 19 long range attempts of the weekend.
Ambriz made three three-pointers in five tries off the bench as the Golden Bears would make 6-9 in the second half and 6-14 in the contest.
While Concordia's three-point shooting picked up in the second half, it couldn't keep pace with a red-hot UIU squad that made 72.0 (18-25) from the floor to put up 53 points, topping Concordia's 43 point second half.
Aside from the three-point shooting, turnovers would also be a major factor as Concordia committed 21 turnovers to UIU's 12 leading to a 31-10 scoring advantage off turnovers.
Four Golden Bears topped Ambriz in scoring in double-figures led by
Cole Olstad's 16 on 5-9 shooting with four steals.
Bryndan Matthews and
Diallo Powell each had 11 points with Matthews collecting seven rebounds to Powell's six.
Shea Mandli had a solid all-around effort in the post, scoring 12 points with six rebounds and a 5-0 assist-turnover ratio.
