ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (5-11, 2-8 NSIC) won back-to-back home games for the first time this season, defeating Minnesota Crookston (3-12, 1-10 NSIC) 76-69 on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center. Senior forward Shea Mandli clicked for the Golden Bears with a career-high 28 points to go with eight rebounds.

Mandli shot 10-15 from the floor and 8-10 from the stripe with five of his eight rebounds coming on the offensive glad. He was flanked by senior frontcourt teammate Mike Yahnke who had his second-straight double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Yahnke also dished out three assists, all to Mandli in the high-low.

Mandli matched his previous career-high of 17 points with 8:42 to play in the half as he came out on fire. He established a new high with 6:16 to play in the opening period and scored 23 points on 8-10 shooting including 7-8 foul shooting in the first 20 minutes, of which he played 14. Yahnke had eight points and six rebounds in the first half as the duo combined to score 31 points on 11-16 shooting while the rest of the team struggled to get going offensively, combining to miss all 15 shot attempts among five other shooters.

Mandli and Yahnke helped the Golden Bears punish the Golden Eagles down low with a 50-32 edge on the glass including 20-9 on the offensive boards which helped Concordia outscore UMC 18-8 in second chance opportunities. More importantly, Concordia earned 33 trips to the foul line, converting 29 (.875) while UMC made just 14 appearances (11-14, .786) despite the fouls being nearly equal with Concordia drawing 20 and committing 18.

Concordia led for over 34 minutes of play and led by as many as 17 points midway through the second half, 62-45 before the Golden Eagles made an 8-0 run to get the lead under 10, 62-53 with under six and a half minutes to play. But Concordia wouldn't allow UMC closer than seven down the stretch to finish off the win.

While Concordia's two senior posts punished inside in the first half, the distribution was much more even in the second half as six players made shots led by guards Diallo Powell with 11 and Cole Olstad with 10. Neither player scored in the first half. Powell also collected eight rebounds while Olstad had a solid all-around line to make up for the off shooting night, grabbing six rebounds, dishing six assists and collecting five steals along with a blocked shot.

It was a strong win for the team, being able to pull out a win despite 36.5 percent (23-63) field goal shooting and 1-8 (.125) three-point shooting on the home nets with the opponent posting higher marks (41.3% FG & 25.0% 3FG).

UMC was led by CJ Polk's 18 points and eight rebounds with three assists and three steals while Ben Grygiel added 17 points off the bench.

Concordia will host Bemidji State (8-7, 5-6 NSIC) tomorrow at 6 p.m. The Beavers are coming off of a 75-74 overtime win in Mankato against Minnesota State. Concordia defeated BSU 80-70 on November 24 in Bemidji earlier this season.