BISMARCK, N.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-13, 2-8 NSIC) did not hold a lead the entire night until four Avan Ward free throws in the final seven seconds gave the Golden Bears a 70-66 comeback win at University of Mary (3-12, 1-10 NSIC) on Friday night.
 
CSP trailed from the 18:09 mark of the first half until the 2:13 mark of the second half as they played from behind from nearly start to finish before closing out the game on a 14-2 run to claim the victory. The Golden Bears trailed by as many as 12 on the night, including 11 in the second half, as the team trailed for all but 3:11 in the game.
 
Concordia continued their dominance in Bismarck as they improved to 7-2 on Mary's home court, bumping their all-time record to 13-8 against the Marauders.
 
The duo of Avan Ward and Bryndan Matthews did the heavy lifting on the offensive end for CSP as the pair combined for 46 of the team's 70 points. Ward eclipsed 20+ points for the fourth time in six games as he matched his career best with 27 points. The sophomore hit 9-16 from the floor and 6-6 from the free throw line to go along with four boards and two assists. Matthews scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half as he connected on 9-14 shooting while chipping in seven boards, three steals and two assists on the night.
 
Ted Brown added a double-figure scoring effort with 10 points on a perfect 5-5 from the floor to go along with six rebounds off the bench. Outside of those three players, no other Concordia player had more than five points as the rest of the team combined for 14 points.
 
As a team, the Golden Bears were extremely efficient from the field as they put up their best shooting percentage of the year at 59.6% (28-47) compared to 49.1% (26-53) for the Marauders. Concordia also led the way on the glass with a 28-23 rebounding edge, a 38-26 edge in points in the paint, and an 8-0 edge in second chance points.
 
Keith Hunter and Tom Kubank paced the Marauders with 16 points apiece while Matthew Kreklow added 11 points as well.
 
After an early 2-2 tie, the Marauders received back-to-back threes from Kubank to take the lead for nearly the entire night. The game remained within two possessions for much of the rest of the half as CSP cut it to one at 17-16 with 8:23 left in the half, but they were unable to get over the hump as U-Mary held on to their lead. The Marauders rattled off a 13-2 lead over a five minute span to build their largest advantage of the half at 30-18. The Golden Bears quickly closed that gap with 12 of the next 16 to cut it down to four before a last second layup gave U-Mary a 36-30 lead heading into the break.
 
An early 11-4 run in the second half extended the Marauder's edge to 11 as they pushed it back to double figures with 15:00 to play, but the Golden Bears clawed their way back from there. Over the next six minutes, CSP scored nine of 11 points to shrink the gap back down to four. A few minutes later following a 5-0 run, the Golden Bears had it back within a bucket at 54-52 with 5:18 on the clock. The lead ballooned back out to eight at 64-56 following U-Mary 10-4 burst as they looked to be pulling away with under three minutes to play, but it was all CSP from there.
 
The Golden Bears held the Marauders to just two points over the final 2:58. Concordia scored eight in a row to tie it up at 64-64 with 2:13 left before U-Mary took the lead back with a bucket with 1:48 to play. Ward tied it back up with a jumper at the 1:31 mark before earning a trip to the free throw line with just seven seconds left and a chance to take their first lead of the night. Ward calmly knocked down both, and after a Concordia stop on the defensive end, knocked down two more with one second on the clock to bring it to the final score of 70-66.
 
The Golden Bears finish off their road trip tomorrow night at 6 p.m. with a trip to Minot State. CSP returns home next weekend with Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls coming to town.