ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-13, 1-9 NSIC) returns home to host University of Mary (5-11, 3-7 NSIC) on Friday night and Minot State (7-9, 3-7 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center in NSIC action.

BANNER UNVEILING
LAST TIME OUT
On Tuesday night in Mankato, the Golden Bears fell to the Mavericks by a score of 76-56.

Concordia was limited to just 35.7% (20-56) from the floor and 29.4% (5-17) from three while the Mavericks finished the game with an efficient mark of 51.7% (31-60) from the floor. CSP did manage to knock down 11 of their 12 free throw attempts to finish with a 91.7% from the stripe.

Minnesota State did most of their damage in the low post as they held a strong 38-22 edge in points in the paint in the win. They also held edges of 15-8 in assists and 16-10 in turnovers forced on the night as well.

Three players for CSP finished in double figures scoring as Bryndan Matthews led the way off the bench while Sam Siganos and Max Keefe also reached the mark. Matthews put up 13 points on 5-12 shooting while knocking down all three of his free throw attempts as he also added six boards in a team-leading 33 minutes of action. Siganos followed with 12 points and four rebounds while Keefe scored 10.

U-MARY SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Friday's contest with a winning record against the Marauders as they have won 12 of the 19 meetings in the all-time series. CSP has been especially dominant over the past few years with six straight wins before last season's meeting in the NSIC Tournament. Concordia has gone 6-3 all-time in St. Paul and 11-3 in NSIC play against U-Mary.

LAST MEETING VS U-MARY
In the opening round of the NSIC Tournament, the Golden Bears' comeback attempt fell short in a 76-72 loss at the University of Mary, snapping their five game winning streak.

Shea Mandli led Concordia with 17 points in his final contest, making 5-9 from the floor and converting all seven free throw attempts. He also dished out four assists in a strong season in which he led the team in rebounding and was second on the team in assists and scoring.

Matt Ambriz made four three-pointers to finish with 16 points with four assists and just one turnover in 37 minutes while seniors Cole Olstad and Mike Yahnke added 12 and eight points, respectively with Olstad securing six rebounds to Yahnke's four. Each distributed three assists.

Senior Cole Olstad missed a contested game-tying three-pointer on the left wing with six seconds left, but the ball was deflected out by U-Mary giving Concordia another shot. Off the inbounds pass, the Marauders quickly fouled with 2.9 seconds to go, putting Concordia in the tough spot of needing a missed second free throw and offensive rebound to get a quick possession. After both free throws were off the mark, the Marauders rebounded and made one of two to seal the win.

ABOUT THE MARAUDERS
After a promising start to the NSIC season saw U-Mary win three of their first four contests in league play, the Marauders have hit a rough patch with six straight losses. U-Mary enters the weekend with just one win in seven games on the road on the year.

Last weekend, the Marauders dropped a pair at home with an 83-60 loss to Northern State on Friday before falling to MSU Moorhead 84-69 on Saturday. U-Mary kept things interesting until the half in each contest as they trailed by four after 20 minutes on Friday and were even at the break on Saturday but saw their opponents pull away in the second half.

The Marauders feature an extremely experienced lineup with eight of nine players in their rotation in their junior or senior seasons while the entire starting five are seniors. Bryan Jefferson leads the way with 15.2 points and 7.3 boards while Damonta Henry has chipped in 13.9 points on the year. Pat Thomas leads the squad in the assists column with 3.8 assists per game.

MINOT SERIES HISTORY
Concordia is set to meet Minot State for just the fifth time in the all-time series as they have collected one win in the previous four meetings. The two schools have met once a year since the Beavers joined the league before the 2012-13 season with MiSU winning the first meeting as well as each of the last two. CSP's lone win came in a 66-65 victory in St. Paul back on Jan. 31, 2014.

LAST MEETING VS MINOT
Back on February 5th of last sason, the Beavers pulled away late for an 81-67 win over Concordia in Minot.

Although Minot State led the entire night, the Golden Bears would claw back into the contest despite the slow start, cutting the deficit to six (33-27) with two minutes to go in the first half.

Later, trailing by 11 (63-52) with 9:42 to play, Concordia's defense clamped down by holding the Beavers scoreless for the next three minutes while Shea Mandli scored in the lane followed by five straight points from Powell to cut the gap to just four points, 63-59 with 7:21 to go.

Mike Yahnke led Concordia with 13 points on the night, hitting 6-10 from the field. Diallo Powell joined him in double figures with 11 points in 24 minutes off the bench while Matt Ambriz was Concordia's third player in double-figures with 11 points, hitting three three-pointers in the game while making his third straight start in the Golden Bear backcourt.

ABOUT THE BEAVERS
Minot State entered conference play with a record of 4-2 and has picked up three wins in 10 against league competition to move to 7-9 on the season. Two of their three wins in NSIC play have come on the road, including a stunning 88-84 win at Augustana to snap a long winning streak on their home court.
 
Last weekend, the Beavers dropped two in a row on the road with an 82-74 loss at MSU Moorhead before falling to Northern State 94-88. After relinquishing a four-point halftime lead against the Dragons, Minot State nearly flipped the script against NSU with a comeback effort coming up short in the loss.

Tyler Rudolph has been a force for the Marauders as he enters play this weekend as the third-leading scorer at 20.2 points per game and second-leading rebounder at 9.1 boards per game in the NSIC. Following Rudolph, four more players have registered in double figures in scoring as Luis Ricci Maia has chipped in 13.4 points, 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds in a well-rounded line. Nathan Mertens (10.8), Stevan Jovanovic (10.7) and Nathaniel Moore (10.5) have all surpasses double figures as well with Russ Davis (9.5) following close behind.

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 been impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-25 numbers in seven different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.2 rebounds per game rank sixth in the league (177th in the nation) while his 5.6 defensive boards per game also ranks fourth (118th in the nation). His 52.3% field goal percentage also ranks sixth.

Sharp-shooter Matt Ambriz near the top in the nation in three-point percentage at second with a mark of 55.1%, best in the league. Ambriz also ranks eighth in the league and 109th in the country with 2.7 threes made per game.

Ted Brown ranks ninth in blocks per game (0.9) while Sam Siganos ranks seventh in assists per game (3.8) and ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0).

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. Over the past several games, Concordia's has went especially young in the starting lineup with four freshmen and a sophomore in the starting five.

Freshman Max Keefe continues to develop into a consistent offensive threat for the Golden Bears as he has scored in double figures in six of the last eight games and seven of the last 12. In the last eight games, Keefe has put up 11.0 points per game to move his season average up to 7.7 points per game.

Sam Siganos is another freshman who has gotten things going the past few weeks with at least four assists in eight of the last 11 games, including a stretch of four in a row with at least six. Siganos has started the past six contests as his season line has moved to 6.0 points and 3.8 assists in 17 games.

Fellow freshman Ted Brown has been a mainstay in the lineup since the start of the year with 15 starts in his 16 appearances so far. The West Des Moines native ranks fourth on the team with 8.6 points and second with 5.0 rebounds while leading the way with 0.9 blocks per game and a 55.9% shooting percentage.