ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (2-13, 1-8 NSIC) wraps up their four game road trip this weekend with a trip to U-Mary (3-11, 1-9 NSIC) on Friday night and Minot State (14-2, 8-2 NSIC) on Saturday night in conference play.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia opened up a four-game road trip to kick off 2018 with losses to Wayne State on Friday and Augustana on Saturday.

It was a tale of two halves in both contests as CSP fell behind by 15 in the opening half on Friday before outscoring the Wildcats 48-45 after the break, and went into the half down 28-27 on Saturday before the Vikings pulled away with a 48-33 edge in the second half. The Golden Bears continued to hold their own on the glass with a 16-14 advantage in offensive rebounds while trailing their opponents 65-62 overall in the rebounding column. CSP saw their opponents hit an efficient 50.4% (57-113) from the floor while shooting 42.2% (46-109) themselves on the offensive end.

Aided by a career-best 20 points against WSC on Friday night, Ahmad Newsome paced the squad with 12.5 points per game on 61.5% (8-13) shooting and 90.0% (9-10) from the free throw line. Avan Ward joined in double figures with 11.5 points and 4.5 boards in 35.0 minutes per game on the weekend. Ted Brown took advantage of his opportunities by hitting 72.7% (8-11) from the floor to put up 9.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 13.5 minutes per game off the bench.

U-MARY SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears take a 12-8 record against the Marauders into this weekend's matchup between the two schools. While Concordia has put up a solid 6-4 record on their home court against U-Mary, they have been even better in Bismarck with six wins in eight trips there. Heading into a meeting in the NSIC Tournament two seasons ago, CSP had rattled off six straight wins in the series before the Marauders snapped that streak. U-Mary followed up that victory with another in the lone meeting last year.

LAST MEETING VS U-MARY
Nearly one year ago to the day on Jan. 13, the Golden Bears were unable to keep pace with the Marauders in an 87-75 loss at Gangelhoff Center.

Both teams were extremely efficient from the floor all night long as U-Mary knocked down 52.5% (32-61) of their shots, including 56.3% (9-16) from deep, while Concordia hit a solid 51.7% (31-60) from the floor. CSP was especially efficient in the first half as they hit 63.0% (17-27) before the break while U-Mary hit at least 50.0% in each half.
 
Turnovers once again proved to be the difference as Concordia's 18 turnovers turned into 27 points for the Marauders while the eight U-Mary turnovers resulted in just 12 points for the Golden Bears. The Marauders also used a 36-29 edge in bench scoring for the win. CSP did, however, hold a 48-36 advantage in points in the paint in the loss.
 
Bryndan Matthews provided a bright spot for Concordia as he fell a rebound shy of a double-double with 21 points and nine boards with an efficient 9-13 from the floor on the night. He also chipped in three steals and a block in the game. Diallo Powell was the only other player to score in double figures for CSP with 15 points on 6-8 shooting to go along with four rebounds off the bench.

ABOUT THE MARAUDERS
The Marauders enter the weekend with a record of 3-11 on the season with a 1-9 mark in league play. U-Mary snapped a nine-game losing streak in conference action this past Saturday with a 77-65 win over MSU Moorhead on the road.

U-Mary utilized career nights by Jaylan White and Trevor Zacher to pick up their first win in league play. White and Zacher combined to hit 18-of-25 shots and 10-of-12 free throws. As a team the Marauders shot 50 percent from the field, including 8-of-20 behind the arc, and made 13-of-15 free throws.

The U-Mary offense has been pretty balanced so far this year with six players averaging at least 7.2 points per game, led by Keith Hunter's 13.5 points per game. Trevor Zacher follows with 11.7 points per game while Matthew Kreklow leads the team with 5.5 rebounds per game and Jaylan White leads with 3.5 assists per game.

MINOT SERIES HISTORY
Concordia's all-time series history with Minot State features just five previous meetings as the Beavers have won four of those five contests. CSP's lone win against Minot State came in St. Paul back in 2014 as the Golden Bears have gone 1-2 on their home court and 0-2 on the road in the series. MiSU has won each of the past three contests since that CSP win.

LAST MEETING VS MINOT
On Jan. 14 of last season, CSP battled with Minot State down the stretch but were unable to pull out the win as the Beavers knocked off the Golden Bears by a score of 74-70 at Gangelhoff Center. 
 
Concordia had several chances to tie or take the lead over the final two and a half minutes but couldn't hit the decisive shot as the Beavers held on for the win. 
 
Minot State were even or ahead in nearly every category on the night as they were even at 30-30 in rebounds (10-6 in offensive boards), 24-8 in bench scoring, 34-22 in points in the paint while turnovers were even at 9-9. Despite the even 9-9 turnover differential, the Beavers were opportunistic with an 18-9 edge in points off of turnovers. Minot State also held a 48.1% to 44.4% edge in shooting percentage as well as a 48.0% to 26.7% in three-point percentage on the night. The Beavers not only shot better from deep, but they also knocked down more threes with a 12-4 edge in threes made.

Diallo Powell paced the Golden Bears offensively with 17 points on 6-13 from the floor to go along with a pair of rebounds and steals off the bench. Tyler Rudolph took over in the second half with 16 of his 24 points as he knocked down 10-15 from the floor to go along with nine rebounds for Minot State.

ABOUT THE BEAVERS
The Beavers have gotten off to a flying start to open the 2017-18 season as they have already matched last season's win total in 13 less games. Minot State took their second loss of the season last Saturday as Northern State snapped their seven-game winning streak in league play.

Minot State has combined a solid defense with an efficient offense to build a recipe for success. The Beavers rank fourth in scoring defense in NSIC play at 70.8 points per game while also ranking second in field goal percentage (50.9%) and second in three-point percentage (44.0%). MiSU also ranks third in assist-to-turnover ratio and fifth in turnover margin as they take care of the basketball.

A big reason for their success has been senior forward Tyler Rudolph. Rudolph ranks third in the league in scoring at 22.1 points per game and eighth in rebounding at 7.2 rebounds per game. The big man has earned NSIC North Player of the Week honors three out of six weeks this season. The Beavers have three other players that are scoring in double figures as David Akibo, Luis Ricci Maia and Nathaniel Moore are all averaging between 10.1 and 11.5 points per game.

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 (145th in the nation) while his 2.4 offensive boards per game rank fourth as well (168th in the nation) as well. The junior has also been the team's go-to scorer as his 15.7 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 63.6% shooting percentage (third) and 1.9 offensive rebounds per game (10th).

REACHING 1,000
Junior Brydan 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 1,014 points in his career, putting him 19 points behind Mike Cunningham for 17th place in program history. Matthews is within range of several other players as his total falls just 104 points shy of 13 points.