ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-4) dropped their final home non-conference contest by a score of 87-73 to Presentation (4-3) on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center in the team's fourth game in five days.
The heavy legs from the quick turnaround was evident as the Saints pushed the pace throughout the night to erase an early CSP lead to claim the victory. The loss for the Golden Bears evened the all-time series with PC at 1-1.
After a high-flying first half with a lot of offense, Concordia hit just 31.7% (13-41) after the break to finish the night at 40.0% (30-75). Presentation managed the same number of made field goals (30) on 21 less shots to finish at 55.6% in the win. The Saints also gained an edge from the free throw line as they hit 17-21 (81.0%) compared to 6-8 (75.0%) for CSP as well as 10-21 (47.6%) from three compared to 7-28 (25.0%) for the Golden Bears.
The Golden Bears held a solid edge on the offensive glass (11-4) to lead to a 13-2 edge in second chances points while they also turned it over just six times, but it was not enough to pick up the win.
Bryndan Matthews tallied his second 20-10 game in the past three games as he paced the squad with a season-high 21 on 9-18 shooting and 2-4 from deep while also filling the stat sheet with 10 boards, three assists and two steals in another full box score. The junior is up to 18.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game on the year.
Matthews' two fellow guards in the starting lineup joined him in double figures as
Avan Ward and
Ahmad Newsome poured in 15 points apiece. Ward added six boards and four assists while Newsome was an efficient 5-7 from the field and 5-5 from the line to go along with three rebounds, three assists and three steals in a career-best scoring night.
Julius Jackson played the starring role for the Saints with a game-high 29 points and 10 boards to pick up the double-double as he hit 10-19 from the field and 3-4 from three-point range. Riyahd Asad added four threes and 19 points off the bench with Marcus Gatlin added 15 points in the win.
The Saints jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead right out of the gate, but the Golden Bears quickly responded to take a lead of their own. Down two at 10-8, CSP rattled off three straight buckets as a part of a 9-1 run to take a 17-11 lead at the 13:38 mark of the first half. From there, Concordia continued to maintain a slim lead throughout the middle portion of the half as they remained out front by six at 28-22 with 6:39 to go in the half. Presentation exploded from there as they flipped the script with a massive 24-9 run before a Matthews three before the buzzer slowed the momentum. PC took the lead at 29-28 following a 7-0 run before continuing to add to it for much of the rest of the half. The CSP deficit grew to as many as nine at 46-37 with under a minute to go before the late three cut it to 46-40 at the break.
While both teams shot a high percentage from the floor in the opening half, the Saints couldn't miss as they shot 70.4% (19-27) in the first 20 minutes as well as 54.5% (6-11) from beyond the arc. CSP, meanwhile, connected on 50.0% (17-34) before the half.
CSP cut it down to four early in the second half at 51-47, but PC was back on the offensive after that with an 8-2 run to build a double-digit advantage with 14:06 to play. The two teams spent much of the rest of the night trading baskets as the lead did not shrink below seven the rest of the way. Presentation pushed it out to 13 at 73-60 before eventually grabbing their largest lead of the night with under a minute to play at 15 before settling with an 87-73 final score.
The Golden Bears hit the road this Saturday for their non-conference finale against Michigan Tech. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.
