ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team opened their season with a 73-65 exhibition win over Northland College at Gangelhoff Center on Wednesday night.
 
It was a tale of two differing styles offensively as CSP connected on 58.8% (20-34) from inside the arc but just 15.8% (3-19) from three-point range while Northland hit 18.9% (7-37) from two and 34.1% (14-41) from deep. The Lumberjacks managed to stay in the game as they forced 22 CSP turnovers while turning it over seven times to maintain a 25-3 edge on points off of turnovers, but Concordia's edge of 40-14 in the paint and 16-4 on the fast break proved to be too much.
 
Bryndan Matthews carried the load on the offensive end as well as on the glass with a game-high 16 points and 15 rebounds for the double-double. He was joined in double figures with Ahmad Newsome's 11 points, and Ted Brown and Diallo Powell's 10 points apiece. Newsome filled up the stat sheet in other areas as well as he picked up eight boards and five assists.
 
Dan Campion and Murdock Smith led the way for the Lumberjacks with 14 points each.
 
Early on the Golden Bears built a comfortable lead as they doubled up the Lumberjacks at 12-6 at the 16:45 mark of the opening half as Ted Brown scored six early points, but Northland battled back to take a 21-17 lead following a 10-0 run spanning four minutes. CSP responded with a quick 10-0 run of their own as their lead hit 27-21 with 7:44 to go before the break. Northland managed to pull even, aided by a pair of threes from Rijo Jackson, as they made it 29-29 just over three minutes later. Down the stretch in the first half, CSP regained control and pushed their lead as high as five before going into the half with a 37-35 lead.
 
Matthews led the way in the half with 11 points and eight boards while Ted Brown connected on all three of his shots to finish the half with eight points.
 
The Lumberjacks came out gunning in the opening half with 19 three attempted, including eight makes, as five different players hit from deep and three players had two threes in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Concordia had their lead back to six at 41-35 in the opening minutes of the second half, but Northland once again battled back to even it up at 43-43 nearly five minutes into the half. The Golden Bears rattled off nine of the next 10 points to push their lead to nine at 53-44 as they took the lead for good. The lead would not shrink below two possessions the rest of the way as it eventually hit double figures at 69-58 with 2:15 to play. Seven straight points over a minute and a half stretch cut the CSP advantage down to four, but the Golden Bears iced it at the line to claim the 73-65 win.
 
The Golden Bears used a team effort in the second half as 10 different players scored and five different players collected five points in the half to close out the victory.
 
CSP will wrap up the exhibition slate on Saturday at 5 p.m. as they travel to Des Moines, Iowa to take on Division I Drake.