ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (0-3) return home for their regular season home opener against Bemidji State (0-2) on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears will look to get in the win column after a tough season-opening trip to Puerto Rico that saw CSP fall just short in the closing minutes of all three contests. Concordia held a solid 135-98 edge in rebounding (35-22 on the offensive glass) and knocked down 44.2% from the field (69-156) compared to 41.0% (75-183) for their opponents, but turnovers proved to be the difference as the Golden Bears averaged 23.7 per game while their opponents averaged 12.7.
Despite the losses,
Bryndan Matthews got his season off to a strong start as he led the team with 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds on the weekend. The sophomore hit 51.6% (16-31) from the floor and 50.0% (4-8) from beyond the arc as he collected double-doubles in two of the three games.
Diallo Powell and
Matt Ambriz joined Matthews in double figures as Powell averaged 12.7 points, 5.3 boards, 2.3 assists and 2.3 steals while Ambriz averaged 10.0 points with 3.0 threes made per game.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS BSU
Concordia enters into Thursday night with a slight edge in the all-time series with the Beavers with a record of 15-14 through 29 meetings. CSP has been especially successful in recent years as they have won 14 of the past 18 meetings dating back to 2005, including nine straight wins at home. BSU's last win in St. Paul came back on Jan. 19, 2002 as the Golden Bears have picked up 10 wins in 14 meetings on their home court. Last season, Concordia swept the season series as they knocked off Bemidji State in non-conference play in Bemidji before taking the NSIC meeting in St. Paul.
LAST MEETING VS BSU
Last year in St. Paul, CSP held visiting Bemidji State to 35.8 percent shooting to pick up A 72-60 win. Freshman
Bryndan Matthews led the Golden Bears by recording his first career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds (five offensive) in 35 minutes of playing time. Concordia's three guards logged impressive playing time on a Saturday night in the Northern Sun as junior
Diallo Powell played 36 minutes and senior
Cole Olstad didn't leave the court. All three also reached double-figures in scoring, with Olstad scoring 13 points to go with seven rebounds and a pair of steals with Powell adding 11 points, three rebounds and four steals.
ABOUT THE BEAVERS
The Beavers also enter in looking for their first win after dropping both games last weekend to open the season. BSU opened up with a 62-44 loss to Lindenwood of Friday before falling to Central Missouri 80-65 on Saturday.
Leading the way for the Beavers through two games is Jai'Vionne Green, who has put up 14.5 points on 52.4% from the floor and 50.0% from deep in 31.0 minutes per game. Green is joined by Sharif Black in double figures, as Black has averaged 10.5 points and 4.0 boards per game off the bench so far.
Concordia will be off for a few days after Thursday's game before returning to action next Tuesday at Gangelhoff Center with a matchup against Augsburg.
