CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-19, 1-15 NSIC) were unable to hold onto a halftime lead as they fell to Minnesota Crookston (7-15, 3-13 NSIC) by a score of 73-70 on Saturday night.
 
It was a game of runs as CSP fell behind by double digits early before clawing back to take a four point lead heading into the half. The Golden Eagles then jumped back out to a big lead as they led by 13 with under 10 to play, but Concordia once again closed the gap and gave themselves a chance to take the lead in the closing seconds. After a steal gave the Golden Bears the ball down one with less than 10 minutes to play, CSP was unable to convert before UMC added two at the free throw line to bring it to a 73-70 final.
 
CSP falls to 22-5 in 27 all-time meetings with UMC as the Golden Eagles snapped Concordia's nine-game winning streak in the series. The win was Minnesota Crookston's first since 2007 against the Golden Bears.
 
Concordia dominated in many aspects of the game as they held a 48.9% to 41.0% advantage in field goal percentage, 38-25 advantage in rebounding, 22-13 advantage in made free throws, and a 24-12 advantage in bench scoring, but turnovers and perimeter shooting proved to be the difference.
 
Minnesota Crookston ended up attempting 16 more shots than CSP, including 14 more threes, as they took advantage of a 17-5 edge in turnovers forced and 18-6 edge in points off of turnovers. While both teams shot very similar percentages from three, the Golden Eagles scored 18 more points from deep with a 10-4 edge in made threes.
 
Bryndan Matthews carried a heavy load for the Golden Bears as he played all 40 minutes and led the team with 17 points and nine boards to go along with three assists and three blocks in a full stat line. He hit 4-11 from the floor and 9-10 from the free throw line.
 
Max Keefe joined Matthews in double figures with 13 points while Brandon McRoy and Ted Brown added nine off the bench.
 
Chase Knickerbocker paced the Golden Eagles with 21 points while Harrison Cleary, Kobe Critchley and Xavier Hall also joined in double figures. Cleary finished with 19 and Critchley and Hall chipped in 13 and 10, respectively.
 
After a pair of buckets put Concordia up 4-0, Minnesota Crookston rattled off 11 straight points to build a lead of their own. That lead grew to 10 at 19-9, but the Golden Bears chipped away for much of the rest of the half. CSP had the deficit down to three at 23-20 with 7:37 left before the break before pulling ahead for their first lead since the opening moments at 33-32 just over four minutes later. The Golden Bears used an extended 13-5 run to take that lead before scoring eight of the final 11 points heading into the half to match their largest lead of the night at 41-37.
 
The Golden Eagles came out firing in the second half as they scored the first five points to regain the lead, and after a bucket for CSP, they scored 12 more in a row to run out to a 54-43 lead with 12:24 to play. The lead hit 13 at 57-44 and again at 63-50 and 65-52 before Concordia started to shrink the gap. Down 13 with 7:46 to play, the Golden Bears surged with 10 straight points and 14 of 16 to cut it all the way down to one at 67-66 with 3:09 left on the clock. CSP remained within a possession down the stretch and nearly took the lead after a steal and a driving layup attempt from Ahmad Newsome with under five second to play wouldn't go down as UMC iced the 73-70 win at the free throw line.
 
Concordia heads back home next weekend as St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth visit Gangelhoff Center.