ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (2-3, 0-0 NSIC) takes a break from non-conference play to open its Northern Sun slate on the road at Wayne State (1-4, 0-1 NSIC) on Friday and #6 Augustana (4-1, 1-0 NSIC) on Saturday.

The Golden Bears and Wildcats will tip at 8 p.m. at Rice Auditorium in Wayne, Neb. on Friday before heading north to Sioux Falls to face the Vikings at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Sioux Falls Arena. The Golden Bears will have one more non-conference game this season which will occur over the holiday break on December 30 at home against Saint John's from the MIAC.

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 17, WAYNE ST 16
The Golden Bears hold the slight edge in the all-time series that started in the 1999-2000 season after sweeping the Wildcats last year, a 72-59 home triumph in December before an 80-69 road win in January. The sweep stopped a stretch in the series that saw the Wildcats prevail in six of the previous seven meetings. Concordia will be making its 17th trip to Wayne America, holding a 6-10 record at Rice Auditorium. Last year's win at Wayne snapped a three game skid in Northeastern Nebraska. The teams have met 30 times in Northern Sun contests, splitting them 15 apiece.

SERIES HISTORY: AUGUSTANA 14, CONCORDIA 5
The Golden Bears weren't able to top the Vikings last year as Augie had one of the top teams in the country and extended its winning streak over Concordia to seven games. Concordia's last win over Augie was January 3, 2012 at Gangelhoff center. The Golden Bears are just 1-7 on the road in Sioux Falls against Augie with the only win coming on the club's second trip on December 28, 2004 in an overtime triumph (89-84). Since the Vikings joined the NSIC in the 2008-09 season, Concordia is 2-10 in conference games and 2-11 overall.

LAST YEAR: CONCORDIA SWEEPS WAYNE
The Golden Bears opened league play with a 72-59 home win over the Wildcats in head coach Joey James' Northern Sun debut as guard Terez VanPelt scored 12 of his 14 points after the break and had six assists with one turnover. Cole Olstad scored 12 of his 18 points before the break to help Concordia to a 12-point lead at the half (39-27).

In the return trip to Wayne in January, the Golden Bears secured their first road win under coach James 80-69 behind Olstad's 25 points and 11 rebounds, adding four assists and four steals. Concordia held WSC to 37.3 percent (19-51) shooting from the field and 20.0 percent (3-15) three-point shooting.

LAST YEAR: AUGUSTANA SWEEPS CONCORDIA
Concordia went toe-to-toe with the eventual top seed in the spring's NCAA Central Region Tournament, holding Augustana who was ranked #11 nationally in the first meeting to 20 points below its season average and a season low mark by a 13-point gap. But the Vikings held off Concordia 65-59 at Gangelhoff Center in CSP's second league contest of the year. Nuni Omot led Concordia with 18 points on 5-6 shooting and five players scored at least eight points. Concordia came out strong, stunning the Vikings to 1-12 shooting to start the game as Concordia built an early eight point lead and carried a 29-28 advantage into the locker room. But Augie shot 51.9 percent (14-27) in the second half to out-pace Concordia's 45.8 percent (11-24) second half shooting to pull ahead.

In the rematch in Sioux Falls, the Vikings - still ranked #12 nationally - snapped Concordia's three game winning streak while extending its own streak to seven with an 80-65 win over the Golden Bears. Augie was able to hold off Concordia despite a Golden Bear bench that outscored the Viking bench 29-2. Despite the strong performance from the Concordia reserves, Augustana never trailed although the contest was tigher than the 15 point final spread indicated. Omot was once again a major factor against the Vikings with 11 first half points on 4-4 shooting but didn't score in the second half on one attempted field goal.

OLSTAD LEADING THE WAY
Through five games, senior Cole Olstad has led the Golden Bears in scoring four times including a pair of 20-plus point efforts. On the year, he's averaging 14.4 points and is tied for second on the team with 6.2 rebounds per game, has made a club-high 10 three-pointers and leads the team in assists (15), blocks (6) and tied for the lead in steals (7).

A fourth year starter, Olstad has scored 1,117 points and is two points shy of surpassing Josh Delich (1999-02) for 12th on the career scoring list.

POWELL SURGES
Junior college transfer guard Diallo Powell is feeling more at home in his hometown of St. Paul, earning Concordia's Male Athlete of the Week honor last week as he poured in 24 points with eight rebounds and three steals on Saturday night in the loss to Peru State. Powell is second on the team with 12.0 points per game and is fourth on the team with a solid 5.8 rebounds per outing, third with 11 assists and tied for the team lead with seven steals. He also leads the team in free throws made (23), attempted (28) and percentage (.821).

MANDLI DOUBLES DOWN
Senior post Shea Mandli recorded his second career double-double with a career-high 13 rebounds along with 13 points in last week's non-conference road win at Bemidji State on Tuesday. For the year, Mandli is tihrd on the team in scoring (8.4) and tied for second in rebounding (6.2) while converting 51.4 percent from the floor.

He's off to a career best start to a season, topping last year's career-high average of 7.0 points and his freshman career-high average of 4.0 rebounds while clocking a personal best 24.4 minutes per game while starting all five contests.

SOBASKI TAKES THE REINS
Sophomore Jon Sobaski has assumed the starting point guard role for the Golden Bears, tied for second on the team with 28.6 minutes per game while averaging 7.2 points and 2.4 assists while providing efficient play with the ball with a 6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

He's been steady in his 7.2 points per game as he hasn't reached double-digits but also hasn't scored fewer than six points in a game, either.

FRESHMEN MAKING EARLY IMPACT
Concordia's fifth starting spot has been split this year by redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz and true freshman Bryndan Matthews. Ambriz brings a perimeter threat, leading the team with a 50.0 percent (6-12) three-point rate. He connected on a three in his first four games including 11 points in his debut against East Central.

Bryndan Matthews has started three times and is averaging 21.2 minutes per game as a rookie. He leads the team on the glass with 6.4 rebounds per game while adding 7.0 points. He's had at least either six or seven rebounds in all five games and scored between six and 10 points in four consecutive games with a high of 10 against St. Olaf.

Adding punch off the bench is freshman OC Omoregie who is third on the team in getting to the foul line with 16 attempts while adding 4.6 points per game with nine assists on the year. Brandon McRoy and Steven Kragt add muscle inside, each averaging 7.8 minutes per game while adding a combined 5.8 points and 4.2 rebounds on 50.0 percent (9-18) shooting.