WINONA, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (1-9, 0-4 NSIC) opened up an early nine point lead and led for a majority of the first half before host Winona State (5-4, 2-3 NSIC) went on a late first half run and never looked back to top CSP 77-59 on Saturday night at McCown Gymnasium.

Concordia came out strong, pulling out to a 16-7 lead as five different players scored early including a pair of buckets each by Bryndan Matthews and Ted Brown, with Brown adding a thundering dunk. Avan Ward and Sam Siganos also knocked down a three-pointer each in building the nine point advantage in the game's first seven minutes.

Matthews led CSP with 16 points and eight rebounds, adding a pair of assists. He was perfect in six trips to the stripe and didn't commit a turnover in 38 minutes.

Brown was efficient from the floor, making 6-of-7 for 12 points and seven rebounds, adding two blocked shots.

After WSU made the game's first basket, Concordia held the lead for the next 15 and a half minutes of play.

But the Warriors closed out the half on a 15-3 run to claim a 37-29 lead at the break and added a three-pointer early in the second half as part of an 18-3 overall run that pushed the margin into double-figures for the first time.

The Golden Bears wouldn't lead again and were only able to get the margin back to single digits four more times and never closer than eight while WSU led by as many as 18 points late in the contest.

The Golden Bears shot a strong 50.0 percent (13-26) from the field in the second half but weren't able to slow down the Warrior offense on their homecourt as WSU shot 72.7 percent (16-22) after the break.

The rebounding (28-28) and turnovers (11-11) were both even, although the Warriors capitalized on turnovers to a 16-8 scoring margin.

WSU was led by Caleb Wagner with 22 points on 8-9 shooting from the floor (3-3 3FG), adding eight assists and six rebounds while Mason Domask scored 18 points on 7-9 shooting (4-5 3FG).

While the Wagner/Domask duo hit 7-of-8 from the arc, the rest of the Warriors made just 2-of-12. Concordia countered by making 5-of-16 from three led by Ward's 2-of-5 long distance shooting. Ward had six points, four assists (one turnover) and three rebounds.

Concordia closes out the pre-holiday portion of the schedule next Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip in Mankato against Minnesota State.