MINOT, N.D. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (3-14, 2-9 NSIC) dropped a back-and-forth contest at Minot State (16-2, 9-2 NSIC) by a score of 80-67 on Saturday night to wrap up their four game road trip.
It proved to be a game of runs as the contest featured nine ties and nine lead changes throughout the night. In addition, there were a combined 10 different runs of at least seven points, including three that were double digits.
The Beavers have now won each of the past four meetings against the Golden Bears as they dropped CSP's record to 1-5 in the series and 0-3 in Minot.
Concordia cleaned up on the glass with a solid 14-7 edge in offensive boards and a 38-33 edge in rebounds, but they weren't able to turn it into a victory. A big reason for that was a significant shooting discrepancy. Minot State connected on 47.5% (28-59) from the field and a perfect 100.0% (16-16) from the free throw line while CSP finished at 39.7% (25-63) shooting and 73.3% (11-15) from the charity stripe. MiSU also held a 12-4 advantage in points off of turnovers as well as a 17-13 advantage in bench scoring on the night.
It was once again the combination of
Avan Ward and
Bryndan Matthews that accounted for a large chunk of Concordia's offensive output with 35 of the team's 67 points. Ward led the way with 18 points on 6-14 shooting as he connected on three three-pointers while Matthews chipped in 17 points as well. Ward added three boards and three assists while Matthews contributed eight rebounds.
Cody Carlson nearly tallied his first career double-double with 12 points and a career-best nine rebounds on the night. Carlson hit 5-11 from the floor and 2-7 from deep while adding a pair of blocks as well.
Ted Brown added seven points and five boards.
Considered one of the top players in the NSIC, Minot State's Tyler Rudolph lived up to the hype with a game-high 29 points on a solid 9-17 from the field and 9-9 from the free throw line as he carried the Beavers throughout the night. Rudolph, Luis Ricci Maia, Nathaniel Moore and David Akibo scored all but six of the team's 80 points on the night as each had at least 11 points in the win.
Unlike the night before, CSP didn't wait until the closing moments to take their first lead as
Cody Carlson scored the first five points in the contest. After Minot State battled back to take their first lead of the night at 10-8, the Golden Bears responded with eight in a row to build their largest lead of the game at the 14:27 mark at 16-10. The game of runs continued as the Beavers scored the next seven points as a part of a larger 14-5 run to go ahead 24-21 with 9:10 left in the half, but Concordia answered right back with a 7-0 run of their own to jump back out front 28-24. The momentum dramatically shifted back the other way as Minot State scored the next 12 in a row and 16 of 18 to give themselves a double digit edge at 40-30 before CSP scored the final five points of the half to cut it to 40-35.
Concordia picked up where they left off to begin the second half as they scored the first seven points to grow it to a 12-0 run to regain the lead at 42-40 with 17:55 to play. The lead hit three at 45-42 before a 7-0 run keyed by Rudolph gave the Beavers the lead back at 49-45. Minot State continued to add to their lead over the next few minutes as they ballooned their advantage to eight at 57-49 with 11:51 to go. The Golden Bears chipped away to cut it to two at 61-59 just over three minutes later, but 10 straight for the Beavers gave themselves a comfortable cushion at 71-59 with just over five minutes left on the clock. CSP collected the next two buckets to close the gap to eight, but that's all the closer they would get as Minot State built their largest lead of the game at 15 before settling with an 80-67 final score.
CSP returns to Gangelhoff Center next weekend to kick off a five-game home stand. The Golden Bears will host Southwest Minnesota State on Friday and Sioux Falls on Saturday.
