ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-15, 2-10 NSIC) dropped their first contest of a five-game home stand by a score of 79-64 on Friday night against Southwest Minnesota State (14-5, 10-3 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center.
The Mustangs made it three straight wins in the all-time series against the Golden Bears as they improved to 28-10 all-time against CSP. SMSU also improved to 12-7 in their 19 trips to St. Paul.
Concordia managed to out-shoot the Mustangs 47.1% (25-51) to 45.9% (28-61) while also holding a 38-28 advantage in points in the paint, but were unable to capitalize as SMSU led from nearly start to finish. Southwest Minnesota State took advantage of a 15-7 edge in points off turnovers, 11-2 edge in second chance points, and a 9-3 edge in three-pointers made. SMSU also held a 33-29 edge in rebounding as they grabbed 10 offensive boards compared to four for CSP.
Bryndan Matthews paced the squad with a game-high 23 points as he knocked down 9-15 from the floor and 5-7 from the free throw line. He also added five boards on the night.
Ted Brown joined him in double figures with 10 points on 3-4 shooting and 4-4 from the charity stripe while also leading the squad with seven rebounds in the loss.
Avan Ward chipped in nine points, four assists, three rebounds, three steals and two blocks while
Max Keefe added seven points and three boards on the night.
The Mustangs put together and well-rounded effort offensively as six different players scored between nine and 16 points while five different players scored in double figures. Leading the way was Ryan Bruggeman with 16 points. He also chipped in seven assists and four rebounds as Bruggeman became SMSU's all-time leader in assists. Taylor Schafer contributed 12 points off the bench while Michael Lee and Carter Kirk added 11 apiece.
It was a back and forth start to the game with five lead changes in the opening five minutes before the Mustangs started to take control. With CSP up 6-5 at the 15:54 mark, SMSU rattled off the next seven points in a row to build a 12-6 edge. An
Elliot Kane three cut it back to one possession before another 7-0 run gave the Mustangs their first double digit advantage of the night at 19-9. The lead grew to as many as 12 in the opening half at 28-16 with 6:33 to play, but the Golden Bears battled back with an 11-3 burst to close the gap to four. Another 7-0 run in favor of Southwest Minnesota State a few minutes later pushed their lead back to 11 before Concordia cut it back to single digits at 44-35 heading into the half.
After an old-fashioned three-point play for Matthews to open the second half closed the gap to six, Southwest Minnesota State put it out of reach with nine straight points to extend their lead all the way out to 15. The SMSU edge reached 16 at 56-40 at the 16:23 mark as their advantage remained comfortably in double digits for the rest of the night. The largest Mustang lead ended up being 18 as they cruised to a 79-64 win.
The Golden Bears are back in action tomorrow night with a 6 p.m. tip-off against the Sioux Falls Cougars.
