ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (3-0) travels south this weekend for the Florida Tech Thanksgiving Tournament as they open up against Georgian Court (0-4) on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
 
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Along with the Golden Bears and the Lions, host school Florida Tech and UPR Bayamon will also participate in the Florida Tech Thanksgiving Tournament in Melbourne, Florida with the semifinals taking place on Friday and the championship taking place on Saturday.
 
CSP and GCU will play in the first semifinal matchup at 12:30 p.m. on Friday before Florida Tech and UPR Bayamon play at 3 p.m. The winners will play in the championship at 3 p.m. on Saturday while the losers will take part in the consolation game at 12:30 p.m.
 
The Golden Bears have had very little prior experience with their potential opponents as Concordia's only meeting against any of the three schools came against UPR Bayamon in the season opener in the 2016-17 season. In that meeting, the Vaqueros hit a game-winning three with 38 seconds remaining to hand CSP a 64-63 loss.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Concordia improved to 3-0 for the first time since the 2011-12 season with an 85-70 victory over Edgewood on Saturday night
 
The Golden Bears battled back from a tough shooting start, finishing the game with a 29-59 (49.2%) mark from the field. Concordia also was efficient from the line, shooting 19-21 on free throws (90.5%). CSP erased a double-digit deficit in the first half with an extended 30-12 run before using a 21-8 run in the second half to secure the comfortable victory.
 
Bryndan Matthews collected his second consecutive 30-10 performance as he led the team with 33 points, 11 boards and five assists while hitting an extremely efficient 83.3% of his shots (10-12) and 92.3% (12-13) of his free throws. Isaiah McKay fell two rebounds short of his second double-double in three games with 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists while he hit three three-pointers.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
Georgian Court is an NCAA Division II program in the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference (CACC) located in Lakewood, N.J. The Lions finished the 2017-18 season with a 5-22 record overall and a 5-14 record in conference play before getting off to a slow start in 2018-19. GCU has dropped their first four contests of the season, including an 80-79 overtime loss to Bloomsburg their last time out.
 
Florida Tech, the host of the tournament, is an NCAA Division II program that plays in the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) and is located in Melbourne, Fla. The Panthers collected a 13-16 record in the 2017-18 season as they went 8-12 in the SSC. Florida Tech has split their first two games of this season with a loss to Auburn-Montgomery and a win against Benedict, both coming on their home court.
 
Puerto Rico-Bayamon is an NCAA Division II independent located in Bayamon, P.R. The Vaqueros opened up the 2018-19 season with a 68-65 win over Montevallo on Saturday night.
 
IN THE POLLS
For the second week in a row, Concordia found themselves in the ranked in the D2SIDA Poll as the Golden Bears garnered 8 points in the poll to claim the 10^th spot. CSP is joined by fellow NSIC schools Sioux Falls (3^rd), Northern State (t-5^th), St. Cloud State (t-5^th) and Minnesota State (7^th) in the rankings as the NSIC claimed five of the top 10 spots. Northwest Missouri State remained in the top spot with all six first-place votes.