ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-18, 3-13 NSIC) led nearly the entire night as they weathered a late Minnesota Crookston (8-14, 5-11 NSIC) run to claim a 74-68 victory at Gangelhoff Center on Saturday night.
The Golden Bears dominated down low with a massive 40-16 edge in points in the paint while shooting an impressive 57.1% (28-49) from the floor on the night. While they didn't attempt many from deep, CSP did take advantage of their opportunities as they hit 5-11 (45.5%) from three-point range. Concordia also took advantage of transition play with 11 fast break points compared to none for the Golden Eagles.
Concordia's defense also played a role as they held UMC to just 35.8% (19-53) shooting and just 24.0% (6-25) from deep. That differential from the field more than negated the Golden Eagles' 92.3% (24-26) from the free throw line and 17-10 edge in points off turnovers.
The win moved CSP to 23-5 all-time against Minnesota Crookston, including 12-2 on their home court, while also making it 10 wins in the last 11 meetings.
One night after scoring a career-high 28 points against the Beavers,
Bryndan Matthews outdid himself with 29 points in the win as he hit several big shots to keep CSP in the lead. Matthews connected on 11-19 shooting while also chipping in three steals, three assists and two rebounds.
Avan Ward added a double digit effort with 13 points and three boards while
Evan Wesenberg fell one point short with nine points on a perfect 4-4 shooting to go along with six rebounds and three blocks.
The Golden Bears made the NSIC's leading scorer work for his points as Harrison Cleary scored 27 points, but he finished just 9-21 from the floor and 3-10 from three-point range. The sophomore guard was also 6-6 from the line while he turned it over six times. Gable Smith chipped in a full line with five points, seven rebounds, four blocks, three steals and two assists in the loss.
After a Cleary three to open the scoring, Concordia responded with the next six points as they led for the final 18:39 of the half. A few minutes later, the Golden Bears embarked on a 9-1 run as a part of a larger 17-6 stretch to grab their largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 23-11 with 9:08 to go. The double digit edge disappeared quickly as the next 10 points went in favor of the Golden Eagles as they closed the gap to two. The differential remained within a pair of possessions for the rest of the half as UMC pulled within two on several occasions but were unable to even it up as the Golden Bears took a 36-32 lead into the break.
Minnesota Crookston opened the second half with a pair of free throws to cut it back to two before five straight for CSP extended the lead to seven. The two teams spent much of the middle portions of the second half trading buckets as neither team was able to swing the momentum in their favor. With the lead still at four at 50-46 with 9:16 left in the game, a 9-2 run pushed the Golden Bear lead back to double figures at 59-48 as they appeared to be pulling away.
Still leading by double figures at 62-50 with five minutes to play, Concordia saw the Golden Eagles pull within one possession as they stormed back with a 9-0 run to make it 62-59 two minutes later. Minnesota Crookston got it down to two at the 2:18 mark on a Cleary three, but a pair of big buckets for Wesenberg and another for Ward kept Concordia out front. CSP did not give Minnesota Crookston a chance to tie as they kept a multiple possession lead before closing it out 74-68.
CSP hits the road for four of their final six games of the regular season, starting next weekend with contests at St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth.
