ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-17, 2-12 NSIC) was unable to dig their way out of an early hole as they fell to Minnesota State (16-4, 12-2 NSIC) by a score of 95-66 on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Mavericks continued their recent dominance over the Golden Bears as they won their 12^th of 13 in the all-time series. Overall, Concordia drops to 6-24 against Minnesota State, including a 4-10 mark on their home court.
 
Turnovers and three-point shooting buried the Golden Bears as the Mavericks outscored CSP 35-14 in points off of turnovers and 45-6 from beyond the arc to gain the decisive edge. MSU forced 23 Concordia turnovers compared to the 14 they committed.
 
From the field, Minnesota State finished 47.2% (34-72), including 53.6% (15-28) from three-point range, while the Golden Bears hit 41.0% (25-61) and 18.2% (2-11) from three.
 
Three different Concordia players scored in double figures on the night, led by Ted Brown's 13 points on a solid 6-8 from the floor. Brown also added six boards in 20 minutes on the night. Bryndan Matthews fell a rebound shy of a double-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists while Evan Wesenberg chipped in 11 points and five boards off the bench. Wesenberg added a pair of blocks as well.
 
Kevin Krieger paced all players with 18 points for the Mavericks as he was one of five players for MSU to score in double digits. Chris Hendrix followed with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double in the winning effort.
 
The Mavericks led from wire-to-wire as they scored the first four points of the game before blowing it open early. After a Max Keefe three closed the margin to 4-3, MSU rattled off 19 straight points over five minutes to extend their advantage to 20 at 23-3. The Golden Bears answered back with nine of the next 10 to pull within 12, but a 15-7 burst for Minnesota State brought the score to 38-17. The Mavericks spent much of the rest of the half adding to their lead as it grew to as many as 29 before taking a 60-32 lead into the break.
 
In the opening 20 minutes, Minnesota State hit a staggering 12-16 (75.0%) from deep while shooting 52.5% (21-40) overall from the floor.
 
Minnesota State continued to tack on to their edge in the opening minutes after the half as they pushed to 75-40 at the 12:57 mark before the Golden Bears slowed the momentum. Concordia put together a 15-3 run midway through the half to cut it to 23, but they wouldn't get any closer as the Mavericks regained control the rest of the way. MSU eventually settled with a 95-66 final to claim the regular season sweep of CSP.
 
Concordia will wrap up their five-game home stand this weekend as they play host to Bemidji State on Friday night and Minnesota Crookston on Saturday night.