ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (4-7) dropped their final non-conference contest of the year to Bethel (7-1) by a score of 87-69 on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Royals turned a four point lead at the break into an 18 point win as they pulled away from the Golden Bears in the second half. After knocking down 25.0% (4-16) from beyond the arc before the half, BU caught fire with a mark of 70.0% (7-10) in the final 20 minutes. The Royals were also extremely opportunistic in the turnover battle as they turned 18 CSP turnovers into 29 points while Concordia had just 13 points on BU's 13 turnovers. Bethel also added an edge on the glass as they picked up 35 boards (13 offensive) compared to 29 (eight offensive) for CSP.
Both teams finished with similar marks from the field as the Golden Bears hit 49.1% (28-57) from the floor and 42.9% (6-14) from three while Bethel hit 49.2% (30-61) from the floor and 42.3% (11-26) from deep on the night.
Max Keefe was productive again off the bench for the Golden Bears as he hit all three of his shots from deep and 5-7 from the floor to finish with 13 points and three boards in his 18 minutes.
Bryndan Matthews also continued his solid play with 14 points on 7-12 shooting to go along with six boards and four steals in the loss.
Diallo Powell and
Ted Brown also joined the pair in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Powell added seven boards while Brown hit 5-9 from the floor.
Sam Siganos distributed the ball well as his nine assists tied for seventh-most in single-game history at CSP as he also added six points.
Bridgeport Tusler paced the Royals with 22 points and six steals while Brycen Wojta chipped in 21 points as well in the win.
The Golden Bears made things look easy the first two possessions of the first half with a pair of layups from
Ted Brown to go up 4-0, but their lead wouldn't last long. After a three at the other end and a layup from
Diallo Powell made it 6-3 in favor of CSP, the Royals strung together an 11-0 run over a three minute span to put Bethel on top 14-6. Their lead continued to grow from there as it hit double digits just past the midway point at 23-11 and again at 25-13.
Bryndan Matthews scored the next three buckets to pull it back to six at 25-19 before BU returned their lead to 11 at 34-23 with 3:34 left in the half. The Golden Bears closed out the half strong, however, as they cut the deficit all the way back down to four at 36-32 heading into the break.
The momentum didn't carry into the second half for Concordia as Bethel pushed their advantage back to double figures by the 16:39 mark at 46-36 and they continued to push it from there. From the 14:32 point on, the Royals remained ahead by over 10 the rest of the way as their lead grew to as many as 21 down the stretch. CSP pulled back to within 14 with just under five minutes, but that would be all the closer they would get as Bethel cruised to the 87-69 win.
Concordia will look to get back in the win column tomorrow as they host Minnesota State at 4 p.m.
