ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (9-15, 6-12 NSIC) embarks on its final road trip of the Northern Sun's regular season, travelling to Fayette, Iowa on Friday to face Upper Iowa (14-13, 10-8 NSIC) at 8 p.m. before a Saturday evening contest at Winona State (12-10, 11-7 NSIC) at 6 p.m.

GETTING HOT
The Golden Bears have won three of their last four games with all three wins coming against teams with .500 or better overall and league records (MSU Moorhead 23-4, 15-3 NSIC; Northern State 14-10, 10-8 NSIC and U-Mary 14-10, 9-9 NSIC). The stretch also includes a larger sample size with a 6-4 record in the last 10 games as the team looks to finish the regular season strong to gain momentum heading into the NSIC Sanford Health Tournament late in the month. The final win of the hot stretch of play includes the team's first NSIC road win, snapping an 8-game road losing streak 76-72 at U-Mary on Saturday night in Bismarck, N.D.

STANDINGS IMPLICATIONS
The Golden Bears are in seventh in the South Division, trailing Southwest Minnesota State by a pair of games as the Mustangs went 2-0 last weekend while Concordia picked up a split on the road. Additionally, the second through fifth place teams in the South Division all picked up sweeps as well which limits the Golden Bears' ability to ascend high enough in the standings to earn a first round home game for the second consecutive year. However, trailing SMSU by two games with four games to play including a head-to-head matchup on Friday, February 19 should make the stretch run exciting for seeding purposes.

As it currently sits, if the NSIC Tournament started today Concordia would hold the seventh seed and travel to Minnesota Duluth (15-9, 11-7 NSIC) in the first round while SMSU (12-11, 8-10 NSIC) would grab the sixth seed and head to Northern State (14-10, 10-8 NSIC). Of course, the Wolves lead U-Mary (14-10, 9-9 NSIC) by a game and trail UMD by one in the north with St. Cloud State (11-13, 8-10 NSIC) just two games out of third and a game out of fourth in a tight race.

OLSTAD CONTINUES CLIMB
Already the fourth leading scorer in school history, senior Cole Olstad is a point shy of reaching the 1,400 point milestone and 44 away from tying Jeff Chamberlain's 1,443 (1993-97) for third on the career scoring list. But Olstad is far more than a scorer as he continues to climb the career charts in virtually every statistic. Olstad ranks third in steals (169), fourth in free throws made (309) and three-pointers made (188), fifth in rebounds (551), seventh in free throw percentage (.805), eighth in assists (233), ninth in blocked shots (59) and 10th in three-point field goal percentage (.387). He also surpassed the Northern Sun's 1,000 career scoring milestone for conference games with 1,045 points in 85 career league games.

On the year, Olstad is the league's 14th-ranked scorer (14.8) with the 11th-ranked free throw percentage (.817, 89-109), is second in steals (45, 1.9/game) and third in minutes (33.2).

He's scored in double-figures 18 times including in 14 of the last 16 games while pouring in 20-plus points seven times on the season. He's drained at least one three-pointer in all but three of Concordia's 24 games and has buried multiple three-pointers 16 times while pulling down at least five rebounds in 18 games and dishing at least three assists 13 times. Defensively, he's had multiple steals in 15 games as well.

POWELL SPARKS THE BENCH
Since Diallo Powell was moved to a key role on Concordia's bench as the team's sixth man, the junior guard has reached double-figures three times in his last five games including last weekend's 14.0 point average in two contests, scoring 17 points with six rebounds and five assists in a road win at U-Mary. He's helped the team rally for three wins in their last four games while still averaging nearly as much playing time (26.6 minutes) off the bench as he has on the year (28.9). On the season, Powell averages 10.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and nearly two assists per game while pulling in the seventh most steals (1.3) per game and averaging the league's seventh ranked free throw percentage (.831, 59-71). In the five games off the bench down the stretch, Powell continues to produce 10.0 points per game and has only missed one free throw in 15 trips to the stripe.

AMBRIZ HEATING UP
Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz has stepped into a starting role with four straight starts and has averaged 12.8 points in 34.3 minutes while making 13-25 three-pointers (.520) as he's buried at least three three-pointers in all four games. Further, he's produced a 7-3 assist-turnover ratio as the team has rallied for wins in three of the four games in those starts. In fact, with Ambriz as a starter in six games on the season, the Golden Bears have produced a 5-1 record as he's shot 55.3 percent (21-38) from the field and 55.2 percent (16-29) from the arc in his starts with an 11-4 assist-turnover mark.

On the year, Ambriz averages 6.6 points per game and has shot at a 44.8 percent (39-87) clip from the arc in 19.0 minutes per game primarily off the bench in 24 contests.

MANDLI FINISHING SENIOR YEAR STRONG
Enjoying his top college season, senior post Shea Mandli is averaging more points (11.5) this year than in his previous best two seasons combined (11.3) while averaging 28.2 minutes and starting all 24 games. He's also averaging a career-high 6.3 rebounds, topping his previous high of 4.0 and is shooting an efficient 53.6 percent from the field. He has also shattered his previous high for assists with 42, topping his previous two seasons combined (40).

He's scored in double-figures 14 times with three double-doubles. In his three double-doubles, Mandli has averaged 13.7 points and 13.3 rebounds as he's amassed 13, 12 and 15 rebounds in the three games. He's reached double-figures in scoring in seven of the last nine games to lift his scoring average from 9.8 on January 9 to its current 11.5 mark. Over the last four games, Mandli has been a steady distributor as well with a 14-2 assist-turnover ratio while stilling pulling down 8.5 rebounds and scoring 14.5 points per game.

YAHNKE EMERGING
After missing the beginning of the season (five games) due to injury and easing his way back into a key role, senior post Mike Yahnke has reestablished himself as a force in the Northern Sun. He's reached double-figures six times including five of the last 10 games and registered three double-doubles over that same span to raise his averages from 5.1 points and 3.2 rebounds to its current 7.4 and 4.9 marks. He had 17 points and 12 rebounds in a big win over #3 MSU Moorhead on January 29, playing 47 minutes of the 50-minute double-overtime contest.

MATTHEWS CONTINUES BREAKOUT ROOKIE SEASON
On a team with four true freshmen factoring into the 10-player rotation, it's swingman Bryndan Matthews who has made the biggest and most consistent impact. He's third on the team in scoring with 10.8 points per game and second on the club with 5.6 rebounds per outing while putting together the top assist-turnover ratio mark on the team at 1.9 (41-22) and producing the third most steals (21). The youngster is also second on the team in minutes with 29.6 while starting 21 of 24 games and seeing at least 20 minutes in 23 consecutive games dating back to his 14-minute debut in the season-opener.

After reaching double-figures in scoring once in the first six games of the year, Matthews has topped the mark 13 times in the 18 games since and has been consistent with at least eight points in a game 21 times on the season overall. He had his first double-double of his career with 15 points and 12 rebounds in a home win over Bemidji State (1/16) and scored a season-high 19 points in Concordia's double-overtime win over MSU Moorhead, adding nine rebounds and a 5-1 assist-turnover ratio while playing all 50 minutes in the game.

BENCH NOTES
With a top six rotation averaging 19.0-plus minutes apiece, the Concordia bench is rounded out by junior center Josh Monroy (9.3) and freshmen Brandon McRoy (11.5), OC Omoregie (11.0) and Steven Kragt (7.3). Monroy and McRoy each have made a pair of starts and all four players have seen action in at least 18 of Concordia's 24 games. Monroy's 3.9 points lead the group as he brings 14 a team-leading 14 blocked shots with his 7-foot, 2-inch frame and is shooting 53.4 percent (31-58) from the floor and 88.9 percent (16-18) from the stripe. Omoregie adds 3.4 points and leads the group with 23 assists while making 42.3 percent (11-26) from the arc. McRoy's 2.6 rebounds lead the four players, as do his 12 steals while shooting 77.8 percent (28-36) from the stripe. Kragt has averaged 2.4 points on 53.8 percent (14-26) shooting with six blocked shots in his action.

The highlight of the season for Concordia's depth unit came in its upset win of #3 MSU Moorhead when Omoregie played the final minute of the double-overtime contest after initially not suiting up due to injury. Freshly uniformed in the double overtime, Omoregie found Kragt on the break with 2.4 seconds left, dishing out of a triple team with Kragt making the layup in his first shot attempt in his seven minutes on the evening to solidify the team's reliance on all 10 rotation players.