ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-12, 1-8 NSIC) is set to hit the road for a quick one-game road trip as they head south to take on Minnesota State (10-5, 5-4 NSIC) on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. at Taylor Center.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears returned home to open up 2017 and dropped a pair of contests to Wayne State and Augustana.
 
On Saturday, the Golden Bears made it tough on the defending national champs all night long as they matched them shot-for-shot nearly the whole game. CSP found most of their success down low with a 26-22 edge in points in the paint, including a 14-8 edge in the final 20 minutes, while they also outscored Augie 27-23 off the bench. 
 
Concordia shook things up in the starting lineup as they started four freshmen and a sophomore for the first time all year and the unit responded by finishing as a +4 in plus-minus in their time together on the court.
 
Sam Siganos orchestrated the offense with seven assists and six rebounds while picking up a career-best 14 points as he flirted with a triple-double in the loss. Matt Ambriz was also effective with 15 points on a solid 5-7 shooting and 3-4 from deep as he was the lone starter not in their freshmen season.
 
Ted Brown and Max Keefe also added to the offensive output with nine and eight points, respectively as Brown was 4-4 from the floor and Keefe contributed eight boards on the night.
 
MSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears are set to meet the Mavericks for the 27^th time in series history on Tuesday night. In the previous 26 meetings, CSP has gone 6-20 against MSU. The series has been tipped in favor of the Mavericks over the past few years as MSU has won eight of the last nine meetings dating back to the 2012-13 season. Concordia has made the trip down to Mankato 13 previous times, picking up two wins during that span. Their last win in the series came back on Dec. 20, 2014 while their last win in Mankato came back on Dec. 9, 2011.
 
LAST MEETING VS MSU
Back on Dec. 17, CSP came up just short in a back-and-forth contest resulting in an 86-82 loss to Minnesota State at Gangelhoff Center. The game remained even until the final few minutes as the Golden Bears led 68-67 with 3:28 to play before the Mavericks took the lead for good.
 
The Golden Bears hit 46.3% (31-67) from the floor and turned the ball over just eight times while holding the Mavericks to 40.7% (24-59), but they were unable to overcome a 44-26 edge for MSU in the paint. Both teams relied heavily on their benches as a total of 71 points (40 for MSU and 31 for CSP) came from the non-starters.
 
Max Keefe shattered his career high with 20 points in 24 minutes in an impressive showing. Keefe connected on an efficient 7-12 shooting and a perfect 5-5 from the line to go along with three boards on the night. Matt Ambriz picked up the other 11 points off the bench for CSP as eight of his 11 points came after the break.
 
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS
Minnesota State owns a 10-5 overall record, including a 5-4 NSIC record. The Mavericks went 1-1 during their last two games as they fell to Augustana 85-70, before defeating Wayne State 87-78 at Taylor Center.

As a team, Minnesota State is averaging 83.8 points and 36.2 rebounds per game this season, while shooting 47.5% from the field. MSU has also passed out 201 assists and has tallied 53 blocks.

Sophomore Joey Witthus is averaging a team-leading 16.2 points per game, while senior Jon Fuqua has posted 15.7 points and a team-best 6.6 rebounds a game.