ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (3-14, 2-9 NSIC) returns to Gangelhoff Center this weekend to begin a season-long five-game home stand as they play host to Southwest Minnesota State (13-5, 9-3 NSIC) on Friday and Sioux Falls (12-6, 7-5 NSIC) on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia opened the weekend with a dramatic comeback win at Mary on Friday night before falling to Minot State on Saturday night to collect the weekend road split.

On Friday, the Golden Bears took their first lead of the contest with seven seconds to play as Avan Ward hit four free throws in the final seven seconds to claim the 70-66 victory over the Marauders. CSP trailed by as many as 12 on the night and 11 in the second half before storming back to snag their first road win of the season. On the weekend, Concordia held a solid 66-56 rebounding edge over their opponents, including a 19-13 edge on the offensive glass.

Avan Ward led the team in scoring on both nights as he followed up a career-best 27 points in Friday's win with 18 points on Saturday to give him 22.5 points per game on an even 50.0% (15-30) from the floor and a perfect 100.0 (9-9) from the free throw line. Bryndan Matthews followed close behind with 18.0 points per game on 48.4% (15-31) shooting while also pacing the squad with 7.5 boards per game. Ted Brown hit a perfect 5-5 from the floor for 10 points in Friday's victory en route to averaging 8.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game on the weekend.

SMSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Friday night's contest with a record of 10-27 against Southwest Minnesota State. After losing seven straight in the series from 2011-14, CSP won three out of the first four meetings under head coach Joey James. Since then, the Mustangs claimed a season sweep last year to even James' mark to 3-3 against SMSU. Concordia has been much more successful against SMSU in St. Paul as they have gone 7-6 in the last 13 meetings here after losing the first five in a row on their home court.

LAST MEETING VS SMSU
In last season's regular season finale, the Golden Bears put together a feverish comeback attempt against the Mustangs, but came up short with a final score of 89-76 in St. Paul as SMSU claimed the NSIC regular season crown.

Keys to the comeback push for the Golden Bears came on the glass as they held a massive 18-4 edge in offensive rebounds and a 38-30 edge in overall boards resulting in a 16-6 advantage in second chance points. CSP also capitalized on SMSU's mistakes as they outscored the Mustangs 24-16 in points off of turnovers and used that to pick up a 17-8 edge in fast break points.
 
Bryndan Matthews flirted with a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to go along with four steals. Matthews hit 3-5 from beyond the arc and 5-8 from the line in the loss.
 
While it was Matthews leading the way, the Golden Bears put together a balanced offensive attack as five different players scored in double figures. Diallo Powell closed out his home career on a high note with 16 points and six boards off the bench as he hit 4-9 from the floor and 8-10 from the free throw line.

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
The Mustangs head into the weekend 13-5 overall and 9-3 in the  NSIC and have won three straight.

SMSU has three players averaging double figures in scoring. Ryan Bruggeman is averaging a team-high 16.6 ppg with a team-high 98 assists. He ranks seventh in the NSIC in scoring (17.5) and third in assists (6.0). Carter Kirk is scoring 14.5 ppg with a team-high 9.8 rpg. He also has a team-high 18 blocked shots and is shooting 61 percent. Kirk leads the NSIC in rebounding (10.3) and is sixth in field goal pct. (59.1). KJ Davis is scoring 10.9 ppg with 15 3-pointers. Michael Lee has made a team-leading 36 3-pointers, while Taylor Schafer has connected on 29 3-pointers and Nick Dufault has made 26.

SMSU is shooting 49 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3-point range, 73 percent from the free throw line and is plus-2.7 in rebound margin. SMSU averaging 80 points per game, while opponents are average 74.

USF SERIES HISTORY
Concordia's will be meeting Sioux Falls for the 20th time in series history on Saturday as they enter in with a 6-13 record against USF. The Golden Bears have been able to turn the tide in their favor a little bit more in recent years as they followed up 10 losses in 11 meetings by taking three of four in 2015-16. Last season, the Cougars returned to their winning ways by sweeping the season series. Four of Concordia's six wins against USF have come at home as CSP has gone 4-5 on their home court.

LAST MEETING VS USF
Back on Feb. 17 in St. Paul, CSP fell just short in a thrilling contest with Sioux Falls as they lost 73-69 at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears erased a 10 point second half deficit to take the lead in the final minutes, but they were unable to hang on as the Cougars took the lead for good with 1:25 to play.
 
It was nearly even across the board in the box score in what was a very even contest. The Cougars held an edge in made threes as they hit nine compared to three for Concordia, but the Golden Bears nearly made up for that gap at the free throw line as they hit 26 free throws compared to 14 for USF. Both teams finished nearly the same from the field as CSP held a slight edge at 38.5% (20-52) to 37.9% (25-66) and both teams put up an even 42 rebounds on the night.

Concordia rode a tight rotation on the night as just seven players played and six scored. Bryndan Matthews came a rebound shy of making it three double-doubles in a row as he led the Golden Bears with 24 points and added nine boards. Matthews was an efficient 7-13 shooting and 9-13 from the line to go along with a pair of steals and a pair of assists.

ABOUT THE COUGARS
Sioux Falls enters the weekend with an overall record of 12-6 and a mark of 7-5 in league play. The Cougars have found themselves locked in several close contests so far this season as they have advanced beyond regulation in four games, going 4-0 in those overtime games.

The Cougars are led by two of the top scorers in the NSIC as Drew Guebert ranks third in the league with 20.6 points per game while Trevon Evans follows close behind in sixth with 19.6 points per game. The duo account for just over half of the team's 80.2 points per game as no other active player is averaging more than 5.6 per night. The two of them are also the top two rebounders and three-point shooters for USF as Guebert leads the team with 5.8 boards per game and 40 made threes while Evans adds 5.6 rebounds per game and 34 made threes. Evans also paces the squad with 2.8 assists per game.

As a team, the Cougars register in as a top-five scoring offense while also putting up a top-five field goal percentage against on the defensive end to give the team a balanced statistical profile. A big reason for success has been their rebounding as they lead the league in both rebounds per game and reounding margin.

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

Bryndan Matthews has been impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-15 numbers in six different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.4 rebounds per game rank third in the league (149th in the nation) while his 2.4 offensive boards per game rank fourth as well (159th in the nation) as well. The junior has also been the team's go-to scorer as his 16.0 points per game rank 11th while he also ranks second in minutes per game (36.3).

In addition, Ted Brown ranks inside the top-10 in a few categories with his 63.4% shooting percentage (second) and 1.9 offensive rebounds per game (ninth) while Avan Ward registers in at fifth in threes made per game with 2.5.

REACHING 1,000
Junior Bryndan Matthews has been a major contributor throughout his three seasons on campus, becoming the 18th member of the 1,000 point club at Concordia. The Eagan native currently sits at 1,050 points in his career, putting him 18 points behind Mike Price for 16th place in program history. Matthews is within range of several other players as his total falls just 68 points shy of 13th place. Matthews will be honored pre-game on Saturday with a short ceremony.