ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (5-24), the eighth seed in the NSIC South, saw their season come to a close with an 80-52 loss at #11 Northern State (28-3), the top seed in the NSIC North, on Wednesday night.
The Golden Bears were unable to recreate last season's magic of a first round road upset of the #1 team in the North as they dropped to 4-15 all-time in the NSIC Tournament and 4-11 in the opening round. CSP also falls to 7-29 in series history against the Wolves while also dropping to 1-19 in Aberdeen.
Northern State led from start to finish as they completely stifled Concordia, holding CSP to just 33.9% (21-62) from the floor on the night. The Wolves were nearly as effective on the offensive end as they hit 53.2% (33-62) in the contest. NSU also took advantage of a 29-19 edge in bench scoring as well as a 19-12 edge in points off of turnovers and 13-6 edge in second chance points in the win.
Concordia once again held their own on the glass as they finished +2 in the offensive rebounding department at 15-13 against the best rebounding team in the league.
Bryndan Matthews and
Avan Ward continued their season-long trend of pacing the Golden Bear offense as Matthews led the team with 13 points and Ward added 11. Matthews was an even 50.0% (6-12) from the floor while scooping up eight boards and a pair of steals while Ward hit 5-12 and chipped in two rebounds and two assists.
Ted Brown made it three CSP players in double figures with 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench while
Brandon McRoy grabbed seven rebounds and
Evan Wesenberg had six.
The Wolves shared the load offensively as five different players registered double digits scoring, led by Logan Doyle's 15 points and nine boards off the bench. Fellow big man Carter Evans put up 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the win.
After an early 4-4 tie, the Wolves started to pull away with seven straight to build an 11-4 edge early. The Golden Bears followed with two of the next three buckets before another NSU run, this time a 12-2 burst, pushed it out to 15 at 25-10 midway through the half. The advantage continued to grow from there as it hit 20 at 35-15 as Northern State maintained control. The two teams spent much of the rest of the half trading buckets as the Wolves took a 49-29 lead into the break.
Shooting played a major role in the opening 20 minutes as Northern State hit 63.7% compared to 37.9% for the Golden Bears.
The Wolves shut down any attempt at a comeback early in the second half as they kept the Golden Bears from stringing together a run to get back in it. CSP cut the deficit below 20 a few times throughout the half, including as late at 64-46 with 8:11 left to play before Northern State put it completely out of reach. NSU compiled a 14-2 run to take their largest lead of the night at 78-48 with 2:29 left on the clock before settling with an 80-52 final score.
Northern State will face Minnesota Duluth at Sanford Pentagon in the quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
