ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (3-6, 0-3 NSIC) didn't have an answer for Upper Iowa's (6-3, 3-0 NSIC) perimeter game on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center as the Peacocks made 15-of-21 from three-point range to defeat the Golden Bears 92-71 in CSP's NSIC home opener.
Concordia returns home for a 6 p.m. tip against Winona State tomorrow evening at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears fell behind by as many as 20 late in the first half and trailed 48-30 at the break. UIU made 8-of-10 from the arc in the half. Concordia got hot in the second half, trimming the lead to eight following a 10-0 run to make it 54-46 with 14:38 to play.
A few possessions later, sophomore
Bryndan Matthews connected on a second consecutive three-pointer to make it a seven point game, 56-49 with 13:41 left. The score would hover in that range for the next couple minutes when Upper Iowa's Carson Parker drained a three-pointer with 11:49 to play that opened up 10-0 spurt in under two minutes of play to make it a 19-point margin nearing the midway point of the second half.
The Golden Bears cut it back down to 12 points again with under eight minutes to play on a corner three-pointer from sophomore
Matt Ambriz, making it 78-66. But the Peacocks once again answered with three three-pointers in a three and a half minute stretch as UIU went on a game-ending 11-0 run for an 89-66 advantage.
Four players scored in double-figures for Concordia led by Matthews' 17 points on 7-12 shooting including 2-3 from the arc. He led the team with five rebounds. Senior
Diallo Powell added 14 points and four rebounds, Ambriz knocked down four three-pointers (4-6) and scored 12 points and
Ahmad Newsome was 5-7 from the field and had 10 points, four rebounds and a 4-1 assist-turnover ratio. But the rest of the squad combined to shoot 5-23 from the floor and the bench was outscored 27-12.
Jordan Hay made nine of his 11 shots and had game-highs of 23 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. Luke Lenhart, Carson Parker and Josh Weeber combined to make 12-of-13 from three-point range, scoring 14, 13 and 15 points, respectively.
