MANKATO, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-2, 0-1 NSIC) dropped their NSIC opener at Minnesota State (4-2, 1-0 NSIC) by a score of 91-72 on Saturday night.
 
CSP fell to 6-25 in the all-time series with the Mavericks as MSU made it 13 wins the last 14 meetings between the two schools. Minnesota State continued their dominance on their home court as they won their 14^th in 16 contests against Concordia in Mankato.
 
For the first time all season, the Golden Bears were held below 45.0% shooting as they finished the night at 43.5% (27-62) from the floor, 40.9% (9-22) from three and 50.0% (9-18) from the free throw line. The Mavericks were extremely efficient inside the arc as they hit 19 of their 30 two-point attempts while hitting 14-41 from three to finish the game at 46.5% (33-71) overall. MSU also held a 44-38 edge in rebounding, a 14-5 edge on points off of turnovers, a 13-8 edge in second chance points and 32-26 edge in points in the paint.
 
Jalen Mobley gave Concordia a major bright spot with a team and career-best 21 points as he knocked down 7-10 from the floor, including 4-5 from deep, in addition to grabbing eight boards. Isaiah McKay also reached the 20+ point plateau for the fourth time in six games as he finished with 20 points on 8-14 shooting and 4-6 from three-point range in the loss. Bryndan Matthews fell a point shy of a double-double as he scored nine points to go with his 10 rebounds on the night.
 
Juwan McCloud paced a balanced MSU offensive attack with a game-best 24 points with four three-pointers while Tre Baumgardner and Carlos Anderson also reached double figures. Overall, the Mavericks had 11 different players score in the game.
 
After CSP jumped out to an early 5-4 lead, the Mavericks took control by scoring the next 10 points as a part of a larger 19-2 run to make it 23-7 just over seven minutes in. The lead remained comfortably in double figures for much of the rest of the half, growing to 17 at 31-14 before Concordia started to chip away. The Golden Bears rattled off 10 of the next 12 to shrink the gap back to nine at 33-24 with eight minutes to go in the half, but that would be all the closer they would get as MSU finished the half strong. With the differential still at 11 at 43-32, Minnesota State went on an 11-4 run over the final five minutes to take a 54-36 lead into the break.
 
The Minnesota State advantage reached 20 as they picked up the opening basket of the second half, but CSP answered with a 9-2 run a few minutes later to cut it to 13 at 60-47. Concordia further reduced the deficit to 12 at 66-54 with 11:45 to play before the Mavericks put it out of reach with eight straight points and 14 of the next 16. MSU cruised from there as they finished off the contest with a score of 91-72.
 
The Golden Bears remain on the road next weekend as they travel to Sioux Falls on Friday and Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday.