MARSHALL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (17-10, 13-8 NSIC) shot 60.7 percent (37-61) from the floor while holding Southwest Minnesota State (12-15, 8-13 NSIC) to 39.3 percent (24-61) shooting for an 86-63 win at R/A Facility on Friday night.
Concordia posted the top single game shooting percentage that the Mustangs have allowed on the season, with the 60.7 percent mark the second highest for the Golden Bear offense.
The win for the Golden Bears is just their third all-time at SMSU in 17 trips to Marshall and the first win at R/A Facility since January 16, 2010 to snap a 4-game skid in the arena.
It ties the program record for NSIC wins with the 2010-11 team (13-9) and the 2006-07 team (13-5). Concordia will play at Sioux Falls (8-19, 5-16 NSIC) tomorrow night to close out the NSIC regular season at Stewart Center at 6 p.m. The Cougars have lost three straight overall and five straight at home. Concordia is 5-2 in its last seven road games and has won two in a row overall.
Concordia also secures the NSIC South Division's number three seed in the NSIC Sanford Health Basketball Tournament and will likely play host to North Division sixth seed U-Mary (8-17, 6-15 NSIC) on Wednesday, February 25 at 7 p.m.
Junior
Shea Mandli posted his first career-double-double with a career-high 17 points on 8-10 shooting while matching his career-high with 10 rebounds while playing 24 minutes off the bench.
Mandli led Concordia's reserves to outscore SMSU's by a 31-14 margin.
Mandli backed up center
Josh Monroy, who was perfect in seven attempts from the floor for 14 points to match his season-high. He also hauled in five rebounds and had a blocked shot in 16 minutes.
The big men were two of Concordia's four players to reach 14 points on the night as
Keith Crockett had 14 points on 7-13 shooting with six assists and three steals without committing any turnovers and
Nuni Omot had 14 points on 5-7 shooting with five rebounds and three assists.
Concordia assisted on 18 of 37 made shots as
Terez VanPelt added five assists with eight points on 4-6 shooting.
The inside play of Concordia was a key factor, as the Golden Bears shot just 26.7 percent (4-15) from behind the arc but were 71.7 percent (33-46) inside the arc. The inside play was highlighted by a 58-32 scoring margin in the paint and a 39-25 rebounding margin.
Concordia's perimeter defense also clamped down on SMSU, holding the Mustangs to 30.4 percent (7-23) three-point shooting on its own rims.
The Golden Bears led for nearly the entire night with advantage in 37 of 40 minutes of play in a game that featured two ties and three lead changes.
Concordia dictated the tone early, jumping out to a 14-7 lead in the opening four and a half minutes of play thanks to perfect shooting in six attempts, going to the post at Monroy for three buckets. VanPelt assisted on three of the team's first six made field goals while the team had five assists on the first six shots.
But SMSU held a 30-29 lead with 4:54 to play in the first half when Concordia made its move to take over the contest.
A quick 7-0 burst as part of a 16-3 run gave Concordia a 12-point lead with 1:18 to play in the half and the Golden Bears would go into the break leading by 10, 45-35.
That was just the start of a stretch of basketball in which Concordia dominated by outscoring SMSU 48-18 over nearly 19 minutes of action to claim its largest lead of the night, 77-48 with under six and a half minutes to go.
