ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (1-10, 0-5 NSIC) returns home to close out 2017 as they play host to #13 Northern State (12-1, 6-0 NSIC) on Saturday and MSU Moorhead (4-8, 2-4 NSIC) on Sunday.

LAST TIME OUT
Back on Dec. 16, the Golden Bears fell to Minnesota State 93-68 on the road.

The Golden Bears were unable to take advantage of a solid shooting night as they connected on 50.0% from the floor in the loss to the Mavericks. CSP was outscored 16-3 in second chance points, 23-6 in points off of turnovers, 33-15 from deep, and 18-9 at the free throw line on the day. The Mavericks have now won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the two school.

Avan Ward compiled a career-high 27 points on 10-17 shooting in just 23 minutes of action. Bryndan Matthews continued to close in on 1,000 points in his career as his 15 points on 6-12 from the floor brought his total to 995 points. Evan Wesenberg added eight points and six rebounds while five other CSP players registered at least three points.

NSU SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters with a record of 7-27 against the Wolves in the all-time series. The Golden Bears will look to make it three wins in the last five meetings with Northern State after winning the lone regular season meeting in two of the past three seasons. Concordia has held their own on their home court with a record of 6-8 in 14 meetings in St. Paul. CSP won the last meeting in St. Paul back on Jan. 30, 2016 by a score of 84-76.

LAST MEETING VS NSU
Back on Dec. 30 of last season, Concordia nearly erased a double-digit deficit in the second half in a 76-75 loss at Northern State.

Concordia shot an efficient percentage from the floor as they knocked down 48.2% (27-56) of their shots and 50.0% (10-20) from beyond the arc while holding NSU to 37.9% (25-66) and 33.3% (8-24), respectively, but were unable to convert it to a win.
 
The big difference in the game came on the glass as a 45-35 rebounding advantage, including a 19-8 edge on the offensive glass led to a 20-7 edge in second chance points for the Wolves. Northern State also held a slight 32-28 in points in the paint in the win.
 
Bryndan Matthews paced all scorers on the night as he finished with a game-high 19 points on 6-13 from the field and 3-5 from deep. Matthews also chipped in nine boards, falling one shy of the double-double, before he fouled out.

Max Keefe contributed 12 points while Ted Brown also scored in double figures with 11 points and six rebounds while Sam Siganos dished out six assists to go along with six points and four boards.

ABOUT THE WOLVES
The Wolves enter the weekend sitting at No. 13 overall in the NABC Top-25 Poll. Northern is currently on an 11 game win streak, sitting atop both the NSIC North and league as a whole.

NSU is shooting 48.7 percent from the floor, 39.0 percent from the arc, and 72.4 percent from the foul line, while averaging 77.0 points, 37.2 rebounds, 15.3 assists, 11.7 turnovers, 6.0 steals, and 4.1 blocks per game this season. The Wolves lead the NSIC against league opponents in scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, and rebounding margin. They are out-scoring their opponents by 14.8 points and out-rebounding their opponents by 7.5 boards per game. 

DJ Pollard leads five Wolves averaging double figures, and three averaging over 12 points per game, with a 12.5 mark. Carter Evans leads the team off the bench averaging 12.1 points, and shooting a team leading 69.9 percent from the floor. Pollard leads the team from the 3-point line, shooting 48.8 percent, while Darin Peterka has knocked down a team leading 25 made 3-pointers. Logan Doyle leads the team in rebounding averaging 7.1 boards per game, with a game high 15 against Missouri Southern.

MSUM SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Wednesday's contest with a record of 12-19 against the Dragons. While Concordia has found success on their home court against MSUM with an 8-6 record, CSP has collected four wins in 17 trips to Moorhead. Concordia has won two out of the last three contests in St. Paul, including the last meeting there on Jan. 29, 2016. Overall, the Golden Bears have won two out of the last three meetings between the two schools, including a meeting in last season's NSIC Tournament.

LAST MEETING VS MSUM
In the opening round of the NSIC Tournament last season, the eighth-seeded Golden Bears pulled off the dramatic upset with an 86-78 comeback victory over top-seeded then-#19 MSU Moorhead.
 
Concordia's defense came through in a big way as they held the league-leading offense to over 11 points below their season average of 89.4. CSP also held the Dragons to 43.1% (25-58) from the floor and 24.0% (6-25) from deep, well below their marks of 51.4% from the floor and 41.2% from three on the season.
 
The offense was nearly as impressive as they knocked down 47.5% (29-61) of their shots to go along with 38.9% (7-18) from beyond the arc, both above their season averages. In addition, the bench play was heavily skewed in favor of the Golden Bears as over half of their points on the night (46) came from their three bench players while MSU Moorhead scored 26 with their non-starters.
 
Both of CSP's leading scorers came from outside the starting five as Diallo Powell led all scorers with 23 points while Brandon McRoy contributed a career-high 19 points in the win. Powell hit a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line while McRoy hit 7-13 from the floor and chipped in five boards.

It was also another productive night for Bryndan Matthews as he put up 16 points on an extremely efficient 7-9 shooting and 2-3 from deep to go along with seven rebounds and three steals.

ABOUT THE DRAGONS
One year after going 24-6, including 19-3 in league play, the Dragons have gotten off to a slow start with a 4-8 record, with a 2-4 mark in the NSIC. MSU Moorhead enter into the weekend having dropped three in a row, with the last two coming at the hands of Northern State.

In the last meeting, the Dragons fell behind by 25 points at the half before falling 89-70. Addison Park led the Dragons for the second consecutive game with 16 points, six rebounds, and one block. Senior guard Tanner Kretchman had 14 points and recorded a season-high of nine assists. Junior forward Jake Johnson scored career-high 12 points and added four rebounds.

On the season, Tanner Kretchman leads the way with 17.4 points and 3.5 assists in 38.1 minutes per night. Four other Dragons are currently putting up double figures in scoring as Johhny Beeninga sits at 14.7 while Addison Park, Evan Hines and Travaun Coad all average at least 11.0 per night.

NSIC LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears have had several players rank near the top of the league in different statistical categories.

Bryndan Matthews has been impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-15 numbers in eight different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.5 rebounds per game rank fifth in the league (132nd in the nation) while his 2.5 offensive boards per game rank third as well (130th in the nation) as well. The junior has also been the team's go-to scorer as his 16.8 points per game rank 11th while he also ranks second in minutes per game (35.9) and 14th in assists per game (3.3)

In addition, Ted Brown ranks inside the top-10 in a few categories with his 60.9% shooting percentage (sixth) and 2.0 offensive rebounds per game (ninth).

NEARING 1,000
Junior Brydan Matthews has been a major contributor throughout his three seasons on campus and now finds himself closing in on becoming the 18th member of the 1,000 point club at Concordia. The Eagan native is just five points shy as he ranks 18th in program history with 995 points.