ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-8, 1-4 NSIC) closes out 2016 on the road this weekend as they travel to Northern State (8-4, 4-2 NSIC) on Friday and MSU Moorhead (10-2, 5-1 NSIC) on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Back on Dec. 16-17, CSP dropped contests to Bethel and Minnesota State as they wrapped up their four-game homestand.

Despite going 0-2 on the weekend, the Golden Bears managed to out-shoot their opponents by a margain of 47.6% to 45.0% from the floor and 41.2% to 39.6% from deep in the two games.

Saturday's matchup with the Mavericks was especially even as Concordia led by a point at halftime and held a 68-67 lead with 3:28 to play, but they were unable to hold on late as MSU scraped out an 86-82 win.

Freshman big man Max Keefe provided a bright spot for the Golden Bears with a team-leading 16.5 points per game on 63.2% (12-19) shooting in 21.0 minutes per game off the bench. Keefe set career highs in scoring in both games as he followed up a 13 point performance with 20 point outburst against Minnesota State. Against the Mavericks, the Wisconsin native knocked down 7-12 from the floor and 5-5 from the charity stripe.

NSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears will look to make it three wins in the last four meetings with Northern State after winning the regular season meeting in each of the past two seasons. Overall, CSP enters with a record of 7-26 against the Wolves with just one win in 18 trips to Aberdeen. Concordia's lone win on the road against NSU came in the last meeting there back on Jan. 31, 2015 in a dramatic 66-65 overtime victory. Northern State got their revenge in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinals that season with a 68-57 win before CSP got back in the win column last year.

LAST MEETING VS NSU
Back on Jan. 30, Concordia was back by 29 points from Cole Olstad in an 84-76 win in St. Paul. Olstad was 10-18 from the field, buried three three-pointers and had four assists.

Northern State took a 44-39 lead into the half, and after the Wolves reclaimed a 71-69 lead with under five minutes to go, Concordia surged to a 9-0 run with four different players scoring during the stretch for a 78-71 lead with 1:20 to go.

The big second half effort included a 45-32 scoring margin on 61.5 percent (16-26) shooting while holding the Wolves to 35.7 percent (10-28) second half shooting.

While Olstad put up a game-high 29 points, Shea Mandli also filled the stat sheet with 18 points and 15 boards on an efficient 8-11 shooting. Matt Ambriz also chipped in 16 points while going 3-4 from beyond the arc.

ABOUT THE WOLVES
After dropping two of their first three NSIC contests by two points or less, Northern State has rattled off three straight wins to move to 4-2 in league play. Overall, the Wolves hold a record of 8-4 on the year with three of their four losses coming down to one possession.

In their lone contest before the break, the Wolves pulled out a wild 118-117 win in double overtime at MSU Moorhead. Mack Arvidson led the team with 30 points, giving him a total of 67 this season against the Dragons.
 
On the year, much of the offensive production for NSU comes from the backcourt trio of Mack Arvidson, DJ Pollard and Ian Smith. All three players register in with at least 13.6 points per game, led by Arvidson's team-leading 19.1, so far this season.

MSUM SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Saturday's contest with a record of 11-18 against the Dragons. While Concordia has found success on their home court against MSUM with an 8-6 record, CSP has collected three wins in 15 trips to Moorhead. The Dragons have won the last three meetings on their home court as Concordia's last win in Moorhead came back on Dec. 12, 2009. That win wrapped up CSP's strongest stretch with MSUM as they claimed six wins in seven meetings from 2006-09.

LAST MEETING VS MSUM
Concordia picked up their signature win of the season last year back on Jan. 29 as they pulled out a dramatic 98-97 win in double overtime over then-#3 MSU Moorhead at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears were led by senior Cole Olstad with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals before fouling out in 40 minutes of play. All five starters reached double-figures as Mike Yahnke had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and Bryndan Matthews narrowly missed a double-double with 19 points and nine rebounds (six offensive) with five assists and three steals.

OC Omoregie, who was not in uniform until the second overtime, came off the bench in the final minute, dishing to Steven Kragt on the break with 2.4 seconds to play for the game winning layup. The Dragons had just claimed the advantage when Tyler Vaughn finished in the lane with 10 seconds to play.

Omoregie was Concordia's last available player as four Golden Bears had fouled out, while Kragt played just seven minutes on the night with the game-winner being his only shot attempt.

ABOUT THE DRAGONS
MSU Moorhead enters into the weekend with a record of 10-2 overall and 5-1 in NSIC play. The Dragons had an eight-game winning streak snapped as they took their first loss on their home court this season in the 118-117 double overtime loss to NSU on Dec. 17. MSUM followed it up with a win over Mayville State in non-conference play on Dec. 19.
 
In the loss to Northern State, junior guard Tanner Kretchman scored a career-high 41 points, obliterating his previous career-high of 25 points set last year against U-Mary. Kretchman was 11-of-20 from the field, including 7-of-11 from beyond the arc and 12-of-15 at the free throw line. He finished with eight assists to two turnovers. Senior guard Aaron Lien also registered a career-high with 36 points. Lien finished the contest 12-of-20 from the field, with seven rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal.
 
Senior guard Aaron Lien is scoring a team-high 18.3 points per game while averaging .570 from the field. Senior guard Jon Doss is first on the team in rebounding averaging 4.9 per game with 11.3 points. Senior forward Ayob Ayob is shooting .544 from beyond the arc and is averaging 16.9 points per game. Junior guard Tanner Kretchman leads the NSIC in assist-to-turnover ratio (6.1) and is averaging 16.5 points per game.

NSIC LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears have had several players rank near the top of the league in different statistical categories so far.

Bryndan Matthews has impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-25 numbers in eight categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.6 rebounds per game rank fourth in the league (138th in the nation) while his 5.8 defensive boards per game also ranks fourth (93rd in the nation). His 52.5% field goal percentage also ranks sixth.

Sharp-shooter Matt Ambriz remains inside the top-10 in the nation in three-point percentage at sixth with a mark of 55.9%, good for second in the league. Ambriz also ranks eighth in the league and 57th in the country with 3.0 threes made per game.

Senior guard Diallo Powell has been a jack-of-all-trades for CSP as he currently ranks in the top-25 in the NSIC in seven categories while Ahmad Newsome registers in at sixth (132nd in NCAA DII) with 4.1 assists per game. Ted Brown also ranks fifth in blocks per game (1.0) while Sam Siganos ranks seventh in assists per game (3.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3).

YOUNG GUNS
The Golden Bears feature a young roster this season with just two upperclassmen (both transfers) while the rest of the squad is in their freshman or sophomore campaigns. In the young roster, a few freshmen have turned it on as of late as they continue to adjust to the college game.

Freshman Max Keefe had a breakout weekend last time out en route to being named CSP's Male Athlete of the Week with 16.5 points per game in their two contests. Keefe has hit double figures in three straight games and four times in the last seven as he has seen his role grow.

Sam Siganos is another freshman who has gotten things going the past few weeks with at least four assists in five of the last six games, including three in a row with at least eight. Siganos parlayed a six-point, nine-assist outburst against Bethel into his first career start against Minnesota State as he put up five points and eight assists in that contest.

Fellow freshman Ted Brown has been a mainstay in the lineup since the start of the year with 10 starts in his 11 appearances so far. The West Des Moines native ranks fourth on the team with 8.5 points and third with 4.9 rebounds while leading the way with 1.0 blocks per game and a 56.0% shooting percentage.