ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, the Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (11-15, 8-12 NSIC) will close out the Northern Sun regular season with a pair of home games against Southwest Minnesota State (13-12, 9-11 NSIC) on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sioux Falls (16-10, 11-9 NSIC) on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Saturday game against Sioux Falls is also senior night and a Pink Out to support Hope Lodge Twin Cities and cancer awareness.

SATURDAY PREGAME HONORS
Prior to tip-off as part of the men's basketball pregame introductions, the athletics department will honor the four men's and women's senior basketball players: Kionda Nicks, Shea Mandli, Cole Olstad and Mike Yahnke for their outstanding four year careers. The department will also present the Dennis Getzlaff Memorial Scholarship, with the Getzlaff family in attendance to present the scholarship to a men's basketball student-athlete.

SATURDAY: HOPE LODGE PINK OUT
Saturday evening's game also represents the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Pink Out for Hope Lodge Minnesota. Donations are being collected during both games on Saturday. The list of potential donations includes pantry items, cleaning supplies, bathroom toiletries, kitchen supplies, everyday necessities, and movies and books.

BEAR WEAR SALE
Concordia athletics will be launching an end of the year sale on all Bear Wear apparel at this weekend's games. Featured items include Concordia Nike Golf Hats, Nike Hooded and Crew Sweatshirts, Nike and Under Armour Polo's, Nike Men's and Women's Dri-Fits as well as Ladies Pullovers. Bear Wear will be set up at the top of the stairs near the concession stand.

GOLDEN BEARS FINISHING STRONG
Concordia has compiled an 8-4 record over the past 12 Northern Sun contests and is poised to make a run at the NSIC Sanford Health Tournament where all 16 teams compete for the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Bears are currently in seventh in the South Division, a game behind SMSU (9-11) and two games behind Upper Iowa (10-10). While SMSU will play at Concordia on Friday and Minnesota State (13-7) on Saturday, the Peacocks will also finish on the road with a trip to #1 Augustana (19-1) on Friday and Wayne State (3-17) on Saturday. In order for the Golden Bears to move up to the fifth seed, Concordia needs to win both games and Upper Iowa to go 0-2, and if SMSU were to win on Saturday in Mankato there would be a three-team tie for fifth. In order for Concordia to have a chance at passing SMSU for sixth, the Golden Bears must pick up a win over the Mustangs on Friday otherwise SMSU would hold a series sweep. Upper Iowa also has a chance to move into the top four to get a home playoff game next Wednesday, trailing fourth seed Sioux Falls (11-9) by a game and Winona State (12-8) by two games for third.

Depending on how the fifth, sixth and seventh seeds in the South Division work out, the bottom four south teams will travel to the top four North Division seeds in the first round next Wednesday. There is currently a three team tie between U-Mary, Minnesota Duluth and Northern State at 11-9 while fifth place St. Cloud State trails by two games at 9-11.

An update will be provided in Friday's postgame recap, however with so many different playoff scenarios the pairings may end up coming down to the closing seconds of contests on Saturday evening.

Concordia's strong finish includes wins over then-#3 MSU Moorhead (17-3), Northern State (11-9), at U-Mary (11-9), at Winona State (12-8) and at Upper Iowa (10-10) as five of the eight wins have come against teams with .500 or better NSIC records.

SERIES HISTORY VS SMSU
Concordia is 9-25 against SMSU all-time with a 6-10 home record. Concordia won the most recent home meeting with SMSU 74-67 last January to snap a three game home losing streak against the Mustangs. In their most recent meeting earlier this year, it was SMSU winning 78-55 in January in Marshall. The Mustangs have won eight of the last 10 in the series overall although the two teams have split the last eight games played at Gangelhoff Center dating back to the 2007-08 season.

SERIES HISTORY VS USF
Concordia is 5-11 against all-time against USF including a 3-4 home record, winning last year's meeting at Gangelhoff Center 71-68. Earlier this year, Concordia dropped a 110-90 loss at USF in January. Concordia is 3-5 against the Cougars since the Golden Bears have been Division II members, reviving the series in the 2011-12 season the year before USF joined the Northern Sun. Prior to that, the Cougars had defeated Concordia six times in a row from 1973 to 1975 when both teams were NAIA members. Concordia, then known as the Comets, won the first two games in the all-time series in 1972.

LAST MEETING: SMSU 78, Concordia 55
The Mustangs made a season-high 12 three-pointers (12-28) to Concordia's one triple (1-13) in a 23-point final margin. The game was close early with seven lead changes and a pair of ties in the first nine minutes of play before SMSU went ahead for good. Concordia trailed by just three, 30-27 late in the first before SMSU went on a 29-6 run from the end of the first half through the first nine minutes of the second half to take a 59-33 lead to put the game away.

Seniors Cole Olstad and Shea Mandli had 13 points and six rebounds apiece with Mandli shooting 5-6 from the floor. Frontcourt mate Mike Yahnke added 4-6 shooting for eight points as well. Freshman Brandon McRoy snagged nine rebounds while starting the contest.

Taylor Schafer's 18 points on 4-8 three-point shooting off the bench led SMSU while Joey Bartlett added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. Mitch Weg pulled down 11 rebounds and nearly had a double-double with nine points.

LAST MEETING: USF 110, Concordia 90
The Golden Bears fell into a 15-0 hole in the first five minutes at Sioux Falls as the Cougars set the tone early with three three-pointers during the decisive opening stretch. The Cougars went on to make 20 three-pointers at 58.8 percent (20-34) clip to out-pace Concordia's strong offensive night. The Golden Bears shot 58.5 percent (31-53) from the field and 43.8 percent (7-16) from the arc and were an efficient 64.9 percent (24-37) on two-point attempts. Concordia was able to dominate the paint to a 46-24 advantage, but the Cougars had a 60-21 edge from three-point range.

Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz came off the bench and buried a three-pointer to spark a 10-2 run to bring the margin back to seven. He had 14 first half points on his way to a career-high 19 point night as he made 6-8 from the floor and 4-5 from the arc. His strong first half shooting helped Concordia keep the margin hovering around or under the double-digit mark.

Senior Cole Olstad led the team with 21 points as five Golden Bears reached double-figures as Bryndan Matthews added 13, MIke Yahnke 12 and Diallo Powell 10 points. Brandon McRoy made his first career start and added eight points before grabbing nine rebounds the next night at SMSU in his second start.

Sioux Falls was led by Drew Guebert's 28 points on 8-10 shooting including 5-6 three-point shooting off the bench. Clint Thomas led the three-point shooting effort with a school record seven three-pointers (7-11) and didn't attempt a two-pointer although he collected a team-high eight rebounds.

FINAL HOME GAME FOR OLSTAD SIBLINGS (FOX-9 FEATURE)
For 11 years, Concordia basketball has featuerd an Olstad sibling as Clark and Shannon's four kids have suited up for the Golden Bears. First, Candace joined the women's program for the 2005-06 season and went on to score 1,267 points with 676 rebounds and 96 three-pointers in 125 games. A year later, her sister Kali joined the squad and went on to set the career three-point record as she knocked down 240 (later broken by Carissa Wolyniec) and scored 888 points with 408 rebounds in 118 games. When the Olstad sisters graduated in 2010, the women's basketball program had reached four NCAA Tournaments including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in Kali's senior year, captured three NSIC regular season and two NSIC tournament championships and were ranked in the WBCA Division II Top-25 twice (19 & 14) while winning at least 20 games each season.

The Olstad run continued when the third, Clay Olstad joined the men's program for the 2010-11 season and contributed to a 16-11 overall record and 13-9 NSIC finish as a freshman seeing action in 23 of the games in his first year, knocking down over half (10) of his 19 three-point attempts. Clay went on to become a three-time NSIC All-Academic student-athlete throughout his career as he added 110 points on 32 three-pointers with 52 rebounds in 70 games including seven starts. After one year with the team, the youngest brother, Cole Olstad joined Clay on the men's team as the two were able to play three seasons together just like their older sisters. After three consecutive losing campaigns including a medical redshirt season for Cole, he helped lead the team to an 11-win turnaround in 2014-15 as a redshirt junior including a 14-8 NSIC finish to set a program record for Northern Sun wins.

Cole has surpassed Candace for most career points in the family and is closing in on third on the all-time scoring list in men's program history. He has 1,441 points, trailing Jeff Chamberlain (1993-97) by a layup and is ranked in the top-10 in virtually every career statistic (more in the next section below).

Covering nearly an entire starting lineup, the four Olstad's have combined to score 3,706 points in 413 games (293 starts) while making 560 three-pointers and pulling down 1,702 rebounds. Further, the Olstad's dominated in their prep careers at (Plainview)-Elgin-Millville High School, combining for 8,746 points with the sisters winning an MSHSL state championship and the brothers recording a pair of MSHSL third place finishes at state. Of the four, Cole's 3,055 career points ranked him fourth in state history when his career ended and was the fifth player in state history to reach 3,000 career points. Kali set the MSHSL career three-point record with 359, Candace was a Top-25 Miss Basketball Finalist, and Clay started as a 7th graded and had scored over 1,000 points by his sophomore campaign.

During their careers as a prep and college standouts, the four Olstad siblings have combined to score 12,492 points along the way.

OLSTAD CONTINUES TO CEMENT HIS NAME ON THE CAREER LISTS
Senior Cole Olstad became the fourth player to surpass 1,400 career points last weekend with back-to-back 21-point efforts and has now scored 1,441 points, just a layup behind Jeff Chamberlain (1993-97) for third on the career scoring list. Chamberlain held the career scoring record for 13 years until 2010 when Craig Heiman (2006-10) finally passed him. Heiman amassed 1,768 points and is followed by Terez VanPelt (2011-15) with 1,546 with Chamberlain and Olstad in third and fourth.

Not just a scorer, Olstad also ranks highly in several other statistical categories in his storied career as he's tied Joey Peel's (2003-07) record of 114 games played, is one start away from tying Justin Vandenberg's (2001-05) record of 101 games started and just one minute shy of Terez VanPelt's (2011-15) record of 3,516 career minutes played. In his time on the floor, Olstad ranks second in career steals (172), third in free throws made (325, 8 shy of Kyle Timmer 1990-94 for second), fourth in rebounds (566, 7 shy of Ben Bauer, 1996-00 for third), fourth in three-pointers made (192, 3 shy of Isaiah Thomas 2009-13 for third), seventh in assists (236), eighth in free throw percentage (.802), eighth in blocked shots (61) and 10th in three-point percentage (.386).

On the year, Olstad is averaging a career-high 15.2 points (13th NSIC), has a career-high 70 assists (2.7/game), is not far off his top rebounding pace of 5.7 last year with 5.4 per game (18th NSIC), leads the league with 48 steals (1.8/game, 4 off career-high), ranks 12th in the league in free throw shooting (80.8% - 105-130), is two three-pointers shy of his career-high of 51 while his 1.9 3FG/game rank 15th in the NSIC.

He's a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team selection and is on this year's Academic All-America ballot, is a reigning All-NSIC Second Team performer and will be a rare four-time NSIC All-Academic student-athlete while earning the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction honor.

SENIOR NOTES: Shea Mandli
Senior Shea Mandli has turned his top season as a college basketball player in 2015-16, averaging career-highs of 11.3 points and 6.3 rebounds to better his previous highs of 7.0 and 4.0, respectively. He's also shattered his previous career-high of 22 assists by dishing out 47 this year, an average of nearly two per game out of the post and has produced a career-high of 11 steals to go with his 13 blocked shots while playing in 107 games with 56 starts at 21.0 minutes per game. He's shooting 53.3 percent (112-210) from the field, as well.

He's moved into the top-10 in career rebounds at Concordia and is is the league's 11th-ranked rebounder. He's also ranked 13th in the conference in field goal percentage and his tenacious play inside has him ranked sixth in offensive rebounds with 2.2 per game.

Entering the final regular season and postseason, Mandli has amassed 713 points, 467 rebounds, 101 assists, 57 blocks, 35 steals and is a career 52.1 percent shooter from the floor. He set his career high in scoring this season with a 28-point outburst against Minnesota Crookston (1/15), pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds against Northern State (1/30) and dished a career-high six assists against MSU Moorhead (1/29) - all resulting in Concordia victories.

SENIOR NOTES: Mike Yahnke
Senior Mike Yahnke has provided a solid post tandem with Mandli over the last four years, playing 97 games with 69 starts at 18.4 minutes per game throughout his Golden Bear career. Like Mandli, Yahnke is also one of the league's top offensive rebounders with 1.9 per game to rank 12th in the conference.

Over the past two seasons, Yahnke has battled his way through injuries to remain a force in the starting lineup while still playing in 44 games and making 33 starts. As a senior, Yahnke is averaging 7.1 points, a career-high 5.3 rebounds, has more than doubled his previous high of 14 assists by dishing 29 and is converting 45.1 percent (64-142) from the field.

With 423 career rebounds, Yahnke is Concordia's 15th-ranked career rebounder and has also scored 632 points with 63 assists, 33 steals and 27 blocks while shooting 46.6 percent from the floor. The big man has also buried 17 three-pointers including four as a senior.

AMBRIZ HEATING UP
While the three seniors have played a key role in Concordia's 8-4 record down the stretch, the shooting and emergence of redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz has also been critical to the team's success. He has started the last six games to help Concordia post a 5-1 record with all five wins over teams with winning records. He's averaged 12.7 points, has a 4-to-1 assist-turnover ratio and is averaging 3.2 three-pointers made per game while knocking down threes at a 54.3% (19-35) clip. He's reached double-figures in five of the six starts and six of the last eight games overall to increase his scoring average from 4.8 per game on January 19 to its current 7.0 mark.

He's reached double-figures eight times on the year and is making 45.9 percent (45-98) from the arc overall, ranking ninth in the Northern Sun. He's made at least two three-pointers in a game 14 times and made three or more eight times. He also started two non-conference games, both victories, as the team carries a 7-1 record with Ambriz in the starting lineup.

BRYNDAN'S BREAKOUT
Freshman Bryndan Matthews has started 23 of Concordia's 26 games this year and is second on the team with 29.9 minutes per game, third on the team in scoring with 11.1 points, second on the team with 5.6 rebounds (15th NSIC), fourth in assists (42) and third in steals (24).

He's been one of the more consistent scoring threats on the team, reaching double-figures 16 times and scoring at least eight points in 23 out of 26 games while topping out at 19 points playing all 50 minutes of the double-overtime win over then-#3 MSU Moorhead (1/29), adding nine rebounds. He had his first and only double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds in a conference win over Bemidji State (1/16), as well.

POWELL PROVIDES THE PUNCH
Junior Diallo Powell has provided a steady presence since moving to a reserve role and is still averaging 28.8 minutes per game as a key factor in the team's rotation. He's the fourth leading scorer (10.2), one of five players averaging 5.0 or more rebounds per game (5.0), is third in assists (45) and second in steals (32). Over the last four games, Concordia has posted a 3-1 record - all on the road - with Powell averaging 11.5 points, 2.0 assists, 5.8 rebounds while seeing 29.3 minutes per game and knocking down seven three-pointers (7-17) and getting to the foul line 5.5 times per game where he's a 79.3 percent foul shooter on the year (69-87).

Powell ranks 15th in the NSIC in free throw shooting (79.3%) and seventh in steals (1.3/game).