ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-15, 1-11 NSIC) battled with Minot State (8-10, 4-8 NSIC) down the stretch but were unable to pull out the win as the Beavers knocked off the Golden Bears by a score of 74-70 on Saturday night.
Concordia had several chances to tie or take the lead over the final two and a half minutes but couldn't hit the decisive shot as the Beavers held on for the win. CSP and Minot State were even or ahead in nearly every category on the night as they led 30-30 in rebounds (10-6 in offensive boards), 24-8 in bench scoring, 34-22 in points in the paint while turnovers were even at 9-9. Despite the even 9-9 turnover differential, the Beavers were opportunistic with an 18-9 edge in points off of turnovers.
Minot State also held a 48.1% to 44.4% edge in shooting percentage as well as a 48.0% to 26.7% in three-point percentage on the night. The Beavers not only shot better from deep, but they also knocked down more threes with a 12-4 edge in threes made.
Diallo Powell paced the Golden Bears offensively with 17 points on 6-13 from the floor to go along with a pair of rebounds and steals off the bench.
Ted Brown,
Matt Ambriz and
Bryndan Matthews all finished in double figures as well for Concordia as Brown scored 13 points while Ambriz and Matthews both scored 10. Brown added six boards while Matthews added nine boards to fall one short of a double-double.
Tyler Rudolph took over in the second half with 16 of his 24 points as he knocked down 10-15 from the floor to go along with nine rebounds for Minot State. Russ Davis also put up 18 points as he hit 6-8 from beyond the arc while Nathan Mertens and Luis Ricci Maia also scored in double figures.
Russ Davis got the Beavers off to a fast start with two quick threes as Minot State built an early 8-3 advantage. That lead was short-lived as the Golden Bears jumped ahead at 11-10 just over five minutes in before the two teams went back and forth for the next few minutes. All in all, the half featured seven ties and a pair of lead changes in an even 20 minutes.
Concordia started to take over near the midway point of the half as they turned a 17-16 lead for Minot State into a 24-17 lead of their own following an 8-0 run spanning three and a half minutes. Seven would be their largest lead of the half for either teams the lead reached that mark again at 29-22 with 4:12 to go, but a strong 12-4 push capped by a deep three from Luis Ricci Maia at the buzzer put the Beavers out front at the half at 34-33.
Ted Brown threw down a huge dunk and drew a foul right after the half to regain the lead at 36-34, but that would be the last lead of the night for CSP. The Minot State lead remained one possession until a 6-0 run pushed their lead from 41-40 out to 47-40 by the 14:34 mark of the second half. The lead grew to as many as eight at 56-48 with 8:56 to play and again at 62-54 with 5:32 to play, but the Golden Bears battled back to make things interesting down the stretch.
Concordia cut five points off that lead to make it 65-62 with 2:42 left and had the ball with a chance to tie before
Diallo Powell knocked down one of two from the line to make it 65-63. After a pair of free throws for Minot pushed in back to four, Powell drained a three to cut it down to one. Trevor Rothstein, who just entered the game for the first time for the Beavers, answered back with a three of his own to shift the momentum back in their favor. CSP cut the lead back to one possession at three on two more occasions and had a chance to tie it in the final minute but couldn't convert as Minot State hit a free throw to ice the 74-70 win.
The Golden Bears are on the road for the rest of January as they travel to Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls next weekend before travelling to Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston the following weekend. CSP returns to Gangelhoff Center on Feb. 3-4 with St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth coming to town.
