ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-2, 0-1 NSIC) remains on the road this weekend as they travel to Sioux Falls (6-1, 1-0 NSIC) on Friday and Southwest Minnesota State (5-2, 0-1 NSIC) on Saturday for a pair of NSIC contests.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia dropped their NSIC opener for the fourth year in a row as they fell to Minnesota State on Saturday evening.

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. CSP saw MSU hold 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 on the night.

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. 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.

USF SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Cougars are meeting for the 22nd time in the all-time series as CSP enters with a 6-15 record against USF. The Golden Bears have been able to turn the tide in their favor a little bit more in recent years as they followed up 10 losses in 11 meetings by taking three of four between 2015-16. In the last two years, the Cougars returned to their winning ways by winning each of the last four meetings. In nine previous trips to USF, Concordia has claimed just two wins.

LAST MEETING VS USF
Back on Feb. 16, the Golden Bears battled back on several occasions in the second half but were unable to come out on top in a 79-68 loss at Sioux Falls.

USF's Trevon Evans scored early and often as he exploded for 37 points on 12-23 shooting and 10-11 from the charity stripe to lead them to victory.
 
The Cougars led from start to finish as they utilized a 39-27 edge on the glass, including a 17-7 edge on the offensive glass, to cruise to victory. Points off of turnovers also proved to be a difference-maker as USF scored 25 points off of CSP's 14 turnovers while the Golden Bears had 16 points off of Sioux Falls' 11 turnovers. The Cougars also got to the free throw line much more frequently as they connected on 17-26 (65.4%) compared to 8-10 (80.0%) for Concordia.
 
The scoring load fell on Bryndan Matthews' shoulders as he collected a team-best 22 points 9-17 from the floor. He also chipped in four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Joining him in double figures for the Golden Bears, Avan Ward and Cody Carlson each added 12 points on the night. Ward hit 5-10 and 2-3 from deep while Carlson connected on an efficient 5-7 from the floor. Ahmad Newsome led the way in the rebounding category with seven boards to go along with six points before fouling out.

ABOUT THE COUGARS
Coming off the best season in the DII-era for the program, Sioux Falls, has picked up where they left off with six wins in their first seven games to open up the 2018-19 season.

The Cougars rattled off five straight wins to start the year, including three over in-region opponents, before a three-point loss to Truman State ended the streak.  USF bounced back with a dominant 94-72 road win at SMSU last weekend to open the conference season with a victory. 

Averaging a hefty 80.6 points per game while holding opponents to 66.0, the Cougars have been led by an impressive senior duo of Trevon Evans and Drew Guebert. Evans, the NSIC South Preseason Co-Player of the Year, ranks fourth in the league with 21.7 points per game while Guebert ranks sixth with 20.9. Evans has added 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game while Guebert has chipped in 6.9 boards and 2.0 assists.

SMSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Saturday night's contest with a record of 10-29 against Southwest Minnesota State. After losing seven straight in the series from 2011-14, CSP won three out of the first four meetings under head coach Joey James. Since then, the Mustangs have won five in a row to move James' mark to 3-6 against SMSU. It's been tough going for Concordia in Marshall as they have gone 3-17 in 20 trips to SMSU. CSP's last win there came back in 2015.

LAST MEETING VS SMSU
Back on Feb. 17, CSP saw Southwest Minnesota State pull away late in the first half as the Golden Bears fell 80-59 in the regular season finale in Marshall.

Three-point shooting played a big role as SMSU hit 14-33 (42.4%) from beyond the arc compared to just 4-17 (23.5%) for the Golden Bears as the Mustangs outscored CSP by 30 in that area. SMSU's ability to take care of the ball allowed them to attempt nine more shots than Concordia as they committed just two while CSP had eight. Overall from the floor, Southwest Minnesota State finished at 45.2% (28-62) while Concordia hit 39.6% (21-53).
 
Concordia's main offensive duo of Avan Ward and Bryndan Matthews both reached double figures as Ward led the way with 16 points and six boards while Matthews added 11 points.
 
While Ahmad Newsome contributed just three points, he did chip in six rebounds and four assists while Brandon McRoy contributed six boards as well.

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
The 2017-18 NSIC South champions are off to another strong start this season with five wins in their first six before dropping their conference opener.

After dropping their season-opening contest to Emporia State, Southwest Minnesota State won five straight on their home court before facing off agains their travel partner, USF, in Marshall. The Mustangs fell behind early in that conference meeting against the Cougars and were unable to recover in a 94-72 loss last Saturday.

With a balanced offensive attack that features six different players scoring double figures, NSIC South Preseason Co-Player of the Year Ryan Bruggeman has led the way with a team-best 21.3 points, 7.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game to go along with 4.0 boards per game. While not registering as one of the six scoring in double figures, Steven McNease has been a big rebounding threat with 9.1 boards per game, good for third in the league.

NCAA/NSIC LEADERS
Heading into conference play, 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 second in the conference and 32nd in NCAA DII in scoring (22.2)  while leading the conference and ranking 16th in the nation in rebounding (10.0). Matthews also registers in at third in the NSIC and 35th in the nation in assists per game (5.8), first in the NSIC and 36th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game (3.3), third in the NSIC and 14th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.9) and seventh in the NSIC and 56th in the nation in field goal percentage (59.3%) all in a conference-leading 40.2 minutes per game.
 
In addition, Isaiah McKay ranks near the top in quite a few categories as well. McKay ranks just ahead Matthews in scoring (23.2) to lead the league and rank 16th in the country while ranking second in the conference and eighth in the country in threes made per game (4.0), fourth in the conference and 40th in the country in defensive rebounds per game (6.7) and seventh in the conference and 127th in the country in assists per game (4.2) in his 35.7 minutes per game, good for second in the conference and 59th in the country.

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 fifh in scoring (1,400), third in rebounds (641), fourth in rebounds per game (6.9), tied for fourth in field goals made (513), fifth in free throws made (315), ninth in assists (219) and 10th in steals (116) in his career at CSP.