ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-15, 1-11 NSIC) sets out for a four-game road trip starting this weekend at Southwest Minnesota State (14-3, 9-3 NSIC) on Friday and Sioux Falls (12-8, 8-4 NSIC) on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Over the weekend, the Golden Bears fell to U-Mary on Friday and Minot State on Saturday at Gangelhoff Center.

On Friday, the Golden Bears shot 51.7% (31-60) but saw the Marauders hold a 27-12 advantage in points off of turnovers in an 87-75 loss. CSP led in most statistical categories on Saturday but Minot State found the decisive edge with a 12-4 edge in threes made in a 74-70 loss for the Golden Bears.

For the week, Concordia held a 107-95 advantage on the glass on the week as they also held a 30-19 edge in offensive rebounds.

In CSP's three games last week, Bryndan Matthews led the team with 14.7 points, 8.0 boards and 2.0 steals while knocking down 54.5% (18-33) from the floor. In addition, Diallo Powell averaged 12.3 points on 51.9% (14-27) shooting off the bench in CSP's two games, scoring at least 15 points in two of the three games.

SMSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Friday's contest with a record of 10-25 in the all-time series with the Mustangs. Despite the losing record in the series, Concordia has won three out of the last four meetings with SMSU. In 18 meetings all-time in Marshall, CSP has picked up just three wins as SMSU has been dominant on their home court. Concordia's last win at SMSU came back on Feb. 20, 2015.

LAST MEETING VS SMSU
In last season's final weekend of the regular season, CSP took advantage of the turnover battle to claim an 82-75 win over the Mustangs.

The Golden Bears forced 16 Mustang turnovers and committed only eight, leading to a 21-7 scoring advantage off turnovers and 17-5 on the fastbreak. The Golden Bears also outscored SMSU 36-22 in the paint.

Concordia's defense came up big on numerous occasions to thwart the SMSU attempts to reclaim the lead as the Golden Bears held the Mustangs to 33.3 percent (10-30) shooting and 31.3 percent (5-16) three-point shooting in the second half. The Golden Bears turned in a 43.8 percent (14-32) second half shooting effort and made 13-15 at the foul line on a night in which Concordia made 19-22 (86.4%) overall from the stripe.

Concordia was led by freshman Bryndan Matthews with 23 points on 9-14 shooting including 5-6 at the foul line. He also had five rebounds and three steals. Senior Shea Mandli contributed a 20-point performance with six rebounds, five assists (no turnovers) and a pair of steals. Mandli was 8-9 at the stripe.

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
After winning 12 games in 2014-15 and 13 games in 2015-16, Southwest Minnesota State have already surpassed those marks this season with 14 wins in their first 17 games. The Mustangs currently sit in a tie for first with Upper Iowa in the NSIC South with a 9-3 record in league play.

Last weekend, the Mustangs eked out a 77-74 win at Minnesota Crookston on Friday before suffering a 96-86 loss at Bemidji State on Saturday. The loss against the Beavers was their second in three league games after rattling off eight straight wins in NSIC play.

A key to the success of SMSU this season has been their scoring depth with six players averaging between 10.2 and 13.0 points per game. Ryan Bruggeman has paced that group so far with 13.0 points to go along with 4.4 assists and 3.0 rebounds  while Taylor Schafer has chipped in 12.4 points with a team-leading 29 threes made off the bench. Big man Carter Kirk has led the team with 7.8 boards and 16 blocks on the year as he has also hit 62.1% from the floor and 10.7 points per game.

USF SERIES HISTORY
Concordia is set to meet Sioux Falls for the 18th time on Saturday as they enter in with a record of 6-11. Since the Cougars joined the NSIC in 2012, Sioux Falls has claimed five wins in eight meetings. CSP has turned things around in the last few years, however, with three wins out of four since 2015. Overall, Concordia has gone 2-5 in seven trips to Sioux Falls.

LAST MEETING VS USF
In the regular season finale last year, Concordia claimed their sixth consecutive win with a 78-63 victory over Sioux Falls to secure the sixth seed in the NSIC South heading into the NSIC Tournament.

Concordia shot 50.0 percent (26-52) while holding the Cougars under 40 percent (.390, 23-59). The Golden Bears also got to the foul line more frequently with 10 more attempts and converted at a high 83.3 percent rate (20-24) to pick up an additional nine points from the stripe. In addition to the strong shooting differences, Concordia held a decisive 39-27 edge on the glass and managed to pick up more offensive rebounds (10-8) despite fewer misses due to the shooting differences.

Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz had the hot hand again for Concordia, scoring 19 points on 7-11 shooting with 4-7 three-point shooting. Freshman Bryndan Matthews added 16 points and seven rebounds, shooting 5-9 from the field and 6-6 at the stripe.

On senior night, Cole Olstad added 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists with a block and a steal to enhance his all-around portfolio, and made all eight free throws as well. Shea Mandli chipped in 14 points and four rebounds and Mike Yahnke collected six rebounds.

ABOUT THE COUGARS
Sioux Falls enters the weekend riding high with six wins in a row to move their overall record to 12-8 and their league record to 8-4, putting them just a game out of first in the NSIC South.

Last weekend, the Cougars rolled past Bemidji State 78-71 on Friday and Minnesota Crookston 69-60 on Saturday to pick up the road sweep. Leading the way over the weekend was junior guard Zach Wessels, who earned NSIC South Player of the Week. Wessels averaged 15.5 points, 9.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds while hitting 66.7% from the field in their two wins. The Minnesota native impressively accounted for 51% of the team's scoring on the weekend.

On the year, Drew Guebert, Mack Johnson and Daniel Huftt have provided a formidable trio as all three have registered in with at least 13.1 points per game. Guebert's 15.5 points and 5.9 boards both lead the team while Johnson has added 14.9 points and Hurtt has chipped in 13.1. Clint Thomas has also contributed 10.9 points while hitting 50.5% from beyond the arc while Wessels has led the team with 3.3 assists per game to go along with 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds on the year.

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 eight different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.4 rebounds per game rank fifth in the league (177th in the nation) while his 5.7 defensive boards per game also ranks fifth (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 eighth with a mark of 50.6%, second-best in the league. Ambriz also ranks ninth in the league and 169th in the country with 2.4 threes made per game.

Ted Brown ranks ninth in blocks per game (0.9) while Sam Siganos ranks 11th in assists per game (3.6) and 15th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8).

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 all freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup.

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 10 games and seven of the last 14. In the last 10 games, Keefe has put up 10.2 points per game to move his season average up to 7.6 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 13 games, including a stretch of four in a row with at least six. Siganos has started the past eight contests as his season line has moved to 5.9 points and 3.6 assists in 19 games.

Fellow freshman Ted Brown has been a mainstay in the lineup since the start of the year with 17 starts in his 18 appearances so far. The West Des Moines native ranks fourth on the team with 8.8 points and second with 5.0 rebounds while leading the way with 0.9 blocks per game and a 55.0% shooting percentage.