ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-8, 1-4 NSIC) came up just short in a back-and-forth contest on Saturday night in an 86-82 loss to Minnesota State (6-4, 2-3 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears hit 46.3% (31-67) from the floor and turned the ball over just eight times while holding the Mavericks to 40.7% (24-59), but they were unable to overcome a 44-26 edge for MSU in the paint. Both teams relied heavily on their benches as a total of 71 points (40 for MSU and 31 for CSP) came from the non-starters.
Max Keefe continued to be a reliable scoring option off the bench as he shattered his career high with 20 points in 24 minutes in an impressive showing. Keefe connected on an efficient 7-12 shooting and a perfect 5-5 from the line to go along with three boards on the night.
Matt Ambriz picked up the other 11 points off the bench for CSP as eight of his 11 points came after the break.
From the starting lineup,
Ahmad Newsome was a handful for Minnesota State as he finished with 13 points, three boards and two assists while
Bryndan Matthews and
Diallo Powell each chipped in 12 points. Matthews added seven rebounds and three assists while Powell hit 3-4 from deep.
Sam Siganos dished out eight more assists along with five points and four assists in a whopping 36 minutes as well.
Aarias Austin played the role of bench scorer for the Mavericks as he led all players with 24 points on 5-9 from deep as well as 9-10 from the charity stripe in the win. Jon Fuqua was also active as he put up 19 points and six boards despite spending much of the night in foul trouble.
Concordia came out aggressive to start the game as they scored the first seven points while forcing the Mavericks to miss their first seven shots through the first four minutes of the game. After a bucket from Joey Witthus put MSU on the board, Jon Fuqua keyed a run for Minnesota State as they took the lead at 11-7 with an 11-0 run. The Golden Bears pulled back even at 13-13, but another run for the Mavericks gave them their largest lead of the half at 22-15 with 10:12 to go before the break. CSP used another strong defensive stretch to jump back out front at 25-24 before the final few minutes of the half featured three ties and seven lead changes to give Concordia a 35-34 lead after the first 20 minutes.
Ball control played a big role in the first half as Concordia turned it over just twice, resulting in no points for the Mavericks, while CSP turned seven MSU turnovers into nine points. At the break, Keefe led the Golden Bears with nine points while four of the five starters contributed at least five points.
Coming out of the break, CSP pushed their lead back to three with a bucket on the first possession before pushing it to four at 43-39 with 14:56 to play, but the Mavericks turned things around from there. The next eight points went in their favor to make it 47-43 as they maintained a one or two possession lead for much of the rest of the night. Their advantage grew to as many as nine with 7:22 left on the clock at 64-55, but the Golden Bears clawed their way back in it with eight straight points to cut it to one with just over five minutes to go.
The outcome remained up in the air pretty much the rest of the way as Concordia tied it up at 66-66 and took a 68-67 lead with 3:28 left before the Mavericks jumped back out front. Powell hit a huge three for CSP with 1:33 left to cut that lead down to 74-73 before Austin answered back with a three of his own to push it back to four. Minnesota State temporarily extended it back to three possessions at 80-73 with 29 seconds left, but the Golden Bears hit some tough threes down the stretch to pull within a possession on several occasions. The Mavericks held on with some solid free throw shooting as they closed out the 86-82 win.
Concordia is off next weekend for the holiday break before returning to action on the road on Dec. 30-31 at Northern State and MSU Moorhead.
