ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia St. Paul men's basketball team (5-20, 2-16 NSIC) picked up a victory Saturday night against Minnesota Duluth (4-20, 3-15 NSIC) by a score of 95-85 at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
In a game when both team's offenses were on display, Concordia's Diallo Powell led all scorers in the game with 27 points off the bench. Powell's 27 were a career high for the senior as well as the most points scored by an individual CSP player this season.
 
With the win, Concordia snapped it's 14 game losing streak, recording their first victory since an 82-75 home win over Winona St on December 10th.
 
Minnesota Duluth's top scorers, Luke Harris and Logan Rohrscheib, came to play as well, recording 16 and 26 points respectively. Harris was especially effective in the first half, shooting 5-5 from the floor, while Rohrscheib hit 5-9 from the outside on the game.
 
Bryndan Matthews also poured in 21 points and 9 boards to help Powell shoulder the load. Freshman Max Keefe (14 pts), Sam Siganos (11 pts), and Ted Brown (11 pts) all chipped in as well, putting five Golden Bears in double digits.
 
The CSP and UMD traded baskets to start the game, as the scoreboard read 9-9 with 16:38 left in the first half. Neither took more than a four-point lead until Powell sank a three-pointer to make it 21-16 in favor of the Bears eight minutes into the 1^st period.
 
The score remained tight for most of the half, as both the CSP (65.5%) and UMD (51.9%) both made more than half their field goals in the first 20 minutes. The biggest lead of half came on another Powell three-pointer, as Concordia claimed a 36-27 advantage with 6:48 left to go in the 1^st. But Minnesota Duluth quickly closed the gap, and a Luke Harris three whittled the Concordia lead to 40-39 with 2:21 left in the half. CSP closed out the half on a 10-4 run to bring the score to 50-43 at the break.
 
Attacking the basket on the dribble and hitting cutters to the hoop throughout the game, Concordia used a barrage of different finishes at the rim to finish with season highs in points (95 and field goal (59.3%) percentage. The Golden Bears scored an impressive 44 points (compared to the Bulldogs 20) in the paint and put in 32 points off the bench.
 
The second half started off with an exclamation point, as Powell put back a Ted Brown miss with a thunderous one handed dunk, sparking a 17-7 Golden Bear to open the half and giving CSP a 67-50 lead. The Bulldogs answered back with a 10-5 run to cut the score to 72-50 with 8:52 remaining in the contest.
 
Concordia's lead drifted between 10 and 17 points for the rest of the game, and Minnesota Duluth couldn't muster a serious run to get back in the game as scoreboard showed a 10-point advantage when time ran out to give the Golden Bears the 95-85 win.
 
Concordia travels to Winona State to take on the Warriors on February 10^th for the next NSIC contest.