ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (5-6, 0-5 NSIC) finishes off 2018 on Sunday with an NSIC contest against Minnesota State (8-3, 4-1 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center on 4 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
Last Tuesday at Gangelhoff Center, Concordia finished the game on a 33-9 run to pull off a dramatic 84-80 win over Presentation.

The Golden Bears looked to be buried as they trailed 71-51 with under five minutes left on the clock before completely shifting the momentum with some high-pressure defense to storm back for the victory. CSP connected on eight of their final nine shots from the floor and five of six from three to fuel a wild 33-9 run and complete the miraculous comeback. Hayden Baughman gave Concordia their first lead since the opening moments of the second half with a clutch three with 16 seconds to play before Isaiah McKay iced it with a pair of free throws following a defensive stop.
 
Heading into the final stretch of the game, Concordia was hitting just 39.6% (19-48) overall and 16.7% (3-18) from deep before the flurry brought those totals to 47.4% (27-57) and 33.3% (8-24) for the night. Presentation, on the other end, hit 39.1% (25-64) from the floor and 22.2% (4-18) from beyond the arc. Both teams spent a lot of the night at the free throw line as PC hit 26-32 (81.3%) and CSP hit 22-35 (62.9%).

Bryndan Matthews put up an incredibly efficient offensive output with 21 points on just eight shots as he connected on seven of them along with 7-11 at the free throw line. The senior also added five assists and four rebounds in the win.

MSU SERIES HISTORY
Sunday's meeting marks the 32nd time the two schools have met on the court. In the previous 31 meetings, CSP has gone 6-25 against MSU. The series has been tipped in favor of the Mavericks over the past few years as MSU has won 13 of the last 14 meetings dating back to the 2012-13 season. On their home court, the Golden Bears have compiled a 4-10 record against the Mavericks. Their last win in the series came back on Dec. 20, 2014 in a thrilling 75-73 victory in St. Paul.

LAST MEETING VS MSU
Back on Dec. 1, the Golden Bears dropped their NSIC opener at Minnesota State by a score of 91-72 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.

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS
After falling to Northern State in the NCAA Central Region Championship to cap off a 24-10 season last year, Minnesota State is off to another strong start with an 8-3 record overall and a 4-1 record in NSIC play.

The Mavericks rattled off four straight wins to start the conference season before falling to Upper Iowa at home by a score of 80-74 in their last league game back on Dec. 15. MSU bounced back for a dominant 116-72 win over North Central on Dec. 18 to return to the win column heading into this weekend's meeting.

Minnesota State has been a high scoring team so far this year with 84.5 points per game through 11 contests. MSU's offensive has been led by a big four of Cameron Kirksey (16.9 PPG), Kevin Krieger (15.1 PPG), Carlos Anderson (14.8 PPG) and Juwan McCloud (13.5 PPG). Krieger leads the team with 9.3 boards per game while McCloud has dished out 2.9 assists per game.

NCAA/NSIC LEADERS
Heading into the weekend, the Golden Bears had several players rank near the top of the NSIC and the nation in different statistical categories.

Bryndan Matthews has been one of the top players in the country early on this season as he ranks fifth in the conference and 36th in NCAA DII in scoring (21.1) while ranking third in the conference and 44th in the nation in rebounding (8.9). Matthews also registers in at fifth in the NSIC and 62nd in the nation in assists per game (5.0), sixth in the NSIC in offensive rebounds per game (2.5), third in the NSIC and 17th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.1) and first in the NSIC and 22nd in the nation in field goal percentage (61.7%) all in an NSIC-leading 39.1 minutes per game.
 
In addition, Isaiah McKay ranks near the top in quite a few categories as well. McKay ranks just behind Matthews in scoring (20.9) to rank sixth in the league and rank 44th in the country while ranking fifth in the conference in threes made per game (2.7), 11th in the conference in defensive rebounds per game (5.2) and ninth in the conference in assists per game (3.5) in his 33.5 minutes per game, good for 10th in the conference.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
Senior Bryndan Matthews has been a major contributor throughout his four seasons on campus and is climbing the career ranks at Concordia. The Eagan native is up to third in scoring (1,499) and rebounding (679), fourth in rebounds per game (6.9), second in field goals made (552), third in free throws made (334), eighth in assists (239) and 10th in steals (120) in his career at CSP. Matthews sits just 47 points behind Terez VanPelt for second in program history heading into Sunday.