ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-19, 1-15 NSIC) returns home to host St. Cloud State (16-9, 12-4 NSIC) and Minnesota Duluth (4-18, 3-13 NSIC) this weekend at Gangelhoff Center.

GOLDEN BEAR BASH
All Concordia-St. Paul and their families are invited to the annual Golden Bear Bash event to be held in conjunction with the women's and men's basketball doubleheader against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday. Tickets to the games and admission into the alumni event area inside the arena are free for alumni and their families. Spend time with former classmates, watch the Golden Bears roast the UMD Bulldogs and score some free food and drinks. Kids will enjoy the Comet Kid Zone with a movie and games, so bring the whole family!

ALUMNI GAME
The coed alumni basketball game will be held at 2 p.m. prior to the women's game (4 p.m. tip) and will feature both men and women players from Concordia's past.

IT'S A SLAM DUNK, DON'T DRIVE DRUNK
This weekend's games will be centered around the Northern Sun's "It's a Slam Dunk, Don't Drive Drunk" campaign in which all spectators will be encouraged to pledge not to drive drunk. This year's event will not be centered around a video submission contest by the league's 16 members and their Student-Athlete Advisory Committees,but instead will focus on the campaign for pledges.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears fell twice on the road with losses at Bemidji State at Minnesota Crookston.

On Friday, CSP held a 29-28 lead in the closing moments of the first half before being outscored 50-33 in the final 21 minutes in a 78-62 loss at Bemidji State.

After leading by four at the half, CSP fell behind by 13 in the second half at UMC before having a chance to take the lead with under five minutes to play in a 73-70 loss on Saturday.

For the week, CSP shot 43.3% from the floor while holding their opponents to 41.9%, but they lost the turnover battle 32-17.

Bryndan Matthews paced the team with 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds 2.5 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals with a pair of full lines on the weekend. Sam Siganos scored a career-high 19 points on Friday night en route to an average of 13.5 points on 52.9% from the field and 60.0% from deep in the two games.

SCSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears will meet the Huskies for the 25th time in series history on Friday as CSP has gone 6-18 in the previous 24 meetings. Concordia's best stretch in the series came between 2010-12 as they won three of four meetings during that span. Since then, SCSU has won four of the last five with their lone win coming on Jan. 3, 2015 in St. Paul. In 11 meetings in St. Paul, CSP has gone 4-7.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
In last year's meeting, Concordia chopped a 20-point deficit in half in the second half before host St. Cloud State pulled away for a 96-71 win.

While free throw shooting was a thorn in the side of the Concordia comeback midway through the second half, three-point shooting also played a pivotal role in the loss. The Golden Bears were just 17.6 percent (3-17) from the arc while SCSU shot 34.6 percent (9-26) from long range. The Huskies also topped 50 percent from the floor (51.5, 34-66) while Concordia was 42.2 percent (27-64).

Concordia was solid in ball control with a 15-6 assist-turnover ratio, forcing 11 Huskies turnovers leading to a 20-4 scoring advantage off turnovers.

Shea Mandli made his first six shots of the game, finishing 6-7 for 13 points while Matthews led the Golden Bears with 15 points including three assists, three offensive rebounds (four total) and only one turnover in 31 minutes.

ABOUT THE HUSKIES
St. Cloud State bounced back from a weekend road sweep to pick up a sweep of Wayne State and Augustana this past weekned. The two wins move SCSU to within a game of the NSIC North lead at 12-4 while their overall record sits at 16-9. The Huskies have been much more successful on their home floor as they have gone 12-2 in St. Cloud and 4-4 on the road.

After getting back into the win column with an 84-80 win over Wayne State on Friday, St. Cloud State handed the defending national champion Augustana Vikings a 91-83 loss on Saturday.  Scott Stone led the Huskies on a dramatic comeback as he scored 13 of the team's final 15 points to finish with a game-best 28 points with five threes and 11-12 from the line in the win. Junior Jon Averkamp scored 18 points with eight rebounds and three assists. Redshirt sophomore Gage Davis chipped in 17 points, six rebounds plus four assists and two steals.

On the season, Gage Davis has been one of the top players in the league as he leads the NSIC in scoring with 22.2 points per game while his 8.8 rebounds rank third. Scottie Stone joins Davis to give the Huskies a high-scoring duo as Stone ranks fourth in the NSIC with 19.3 points per game while he leads the league with 3.6 threes made per game. Jon Averkamp gives the team a third player in double figures scoring with 10.7 points to go along with 5.9 rebounds while Mark Hall (8.5 PPG) and Andy Foley (7.1 PPG) round out the starting five.

UMD SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Saturday's matchup, the Golden Bears hold a record of 11-14 against the Bulldogs. The momentum has been heavily shifted in CSP's favor in the past few years as they have won 11 of the last 15 and and seven of the last nine in the series. Concordia has claimed wins five in a row in St. Paul against UMD with the Bulldogs last win there coming in 2006. Overall, CSP is 6-6 in 12 meetings on their home court.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
Last season in the first game of 2016, CSP was led by 24 points on six three-pointers from senior Cole Olstad, who eclipsed 1,200 career points in an 85-83 overtime loss at Minnesota Duluth.

The Golden Bears were unable to protect a seven point lead (72-65) with 3:17 left in regulation, but Shea Mandli saw his game-winning turnaround 12-foot attempt at the buzzer rim out.

In overtime, the Golden Bears nearly overcame a five point deficit with a minute left as Diallo Powell hit a pair of jumpers to give the team a chance to tie late. But Concordia had a pair of close range shot attempts rim out on the final possession, first on a missed lay-up in traffic by Olstad followed by a missed tip-in attempt by Mike Yahnke at the horn.

Olstad was 6-12 from the floor, sinking 6-10 from three-point range and 6-6 at the foul line while pulling in seven rebounds. He's the 11th player in team history to top 1,200 points and is now up to 1,211 career points, moving into 10th on the career scoring list. Powell finished with 10 points and seven rebounds with four steals. Mandli had eight points, four rebounds and a pair of assists while Yahnke contributed four points and five rebounds.

ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
Minnesota Duluth heads into the weekend looking to snap an eight-game losing streak after falling to Augustana and Wayne State this past weekend. The streak dropped the Bulldogs to 4-18 overall and 3-13 in league play as they have won just one of 10 contests away from home.

Last weekend, UMD was handed a 90-67 loss by Augustana before losing a heartbreaker to Wayne State by a score of 79-77. Against WSC, UMD held a six point lead with 2:54 remaining, but the Wildcats scored seven straight points over the next minute to grab a 73-72 advantage. With Wayne State clinging to a 77-75 lead, junior forward Jake Wilson banked home an off-balance layup to tie the game. With just over four seconds to play, sophomore guard Vance Janssen of Wayne State drove the length of the court and netted a layup to send the visitors home with a victory.

The young Bulldogs squad features a balanced offensive attack with 10 players averaging at least 5.0 points per game and none averaging double digits on the season. Leading the way is Luke Harris with 9.8 points while Logan Rohrscheib has chipped in 9.4 points per game.

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

Bryndan Matthews has been impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-25 numbers in eight different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.1 rebounds per game rank sixth in the league (166th in the nation) while his 5.4 defensive boards per game also ranks sixth (124th in the nation). His 50.9% field goal percentage also ranks 11th.

In addition, Ted Brown ranks 14th in blocks per game (0.7)  while Sam Siganos ranks 13th in assists per game (3.4) and 13th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8).

YOUNG GUNS
The Golden Bears feature a young roster this season with just two upperclassmen (both transfers) while the rest of the squad is in their freshman or sophomore campaigns. Over the past several games, Concordia's has went especially young in the starting lineup with all freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup.

Freshman Max Keefe continues to develop into a consistent offensive threat for the Golden Bears as he has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 14 games and 11 of the last 18. In the last 14 games, Keefe has put up 10.6 points per game to move his season average up to 8.3 points per game.

Sam Siganos is another freshman who has gotten things going the past few weeks with at least four assists in nine of the last 17 games, including a stretch of four in a row with at least six. Siganos has started the past 12 contests as his season line has moved to 6.9 points and 3.4 assists in 21 games.

Fellow freshman Ted Brown has been a regular in the lineup since the start of the year with 19 starts in his 22 appearances so far. The West Des Moines native ranks fifth on the team with 8.0 points and second with 4.9 rebounds while leading the way with 0.7 blocks per game and a 54.2% shooting percentage.