ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (7-8, 2-7 NSIC) stifled Southwest Minnesota State (8-7, 3-6 NSIC) for much of the night before surviving a late push to claim a 76-70 win on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears held SMSU to 36.7% (22-60) from the floor and 26.9% (7-26) from three over the first 38:36 before the Mustangs hit five of their final six shots, including four of the final five from three, to make it a game in the final minute of play. Concordia managed to hang out with some stellar free throw shooting down the stretch to pick up their 11^th win in 41 games against Southwest Minnesota State. The win snapped a six game winning streak for the Mustangs in the all-time series as CSP improved to 8-12 in 20 meetings in St. Paul.
 
Concordia finished the game an extremely efficient 88.9% (24-27) from the free throw line while also hitting 46.9% (23-49) from the field to aid the effort. The Golden Bears also dominated on the glass with a 42-24 edge in rebounds. SMSU, on the other end, turned 17 CSP turnovers into 23 points while committing just seven turnovers and allowing just 11 points off turnovers in the losing effort.
 
Cody Carlson continued his strong play of late with a career-best 22 points on 7-9 shooting, 2-2 from three while also knocking down 6-8 from the line while he also chipped in five boards in the win. It was the sophomore big man's third consecutive game in double figures after scoring 19 at UMary and 11 at Minot State.
 
Isaiah McKay added a solid performance of his own with 19 points on 6-11 shooting while hitting a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line to go along with a team-best seven rebounds and four assists in the win. Bryndan Matthews also scored in double figures with 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals in a full line as well.
 
SMSU's Ryan Bruggeman was held to 6-15 from the floor and 2-6 from deep while leading the Mustangs with 18 points in the loss. Taylor Schafer knocked down three three-pointers to put up 13 points as well for Southwest Minnesota State.
 
It was a back and forth start to the contest with two ties and four lead changes over the first six minutes before the Golden Bears started to take control. With the Mustangs holding an 11-8 lead following a pair of threes from Nick Dufault, CSP responded with the next five points to regain the lead at 13-11. An SMSU jumper evened it back up before the Golden Bears continued their surge with 10 straight points to extend the overall run to 15-2 and give the team a double-digit edge at 23-13 with under eight minutes left in the half. Concordia's lead remained eight or more for the rest of the half as they limited chances for the Mustangs to cut into the lead. The margin sat at eight at the five minute mark before another 5-0 run for Concordia gave them their largest lead of the half at 32-19. Six of the final eight points of the half went in favor of Southwest Minnesota State to cut it back to single digits at 34-25 heading to the break.
 
Taylor Schafer quickly closed the gap to four in the opening moments of the second half with a three and a layup, but the Golden Bears stemmed the tide and kept the lead at two possessions or more. After threes on both ends of the court to make it 37-33, CSP regained control with a big 13-5 run aided by three three-pointers to make it 50-38 with 14:49 to play. An old-fashioned three-point play had the deficit back to single digits, but that would be the last time in was below 10 until the final minute of the game. Southwest Minnesota State had the gap back to 10 at 55-45 with just under 12 minutes left on the clock, but the Golden Bears appeared ice the game with 12 of the next 18 points to build their biggest advantage of the night at 67-51 six and a half minutes later at the 5:33 mark.
 
The Mustangs managed to make things interesting down the stretch as they held CSP off the scoreboard over the next 4:51 while scoring 12 in a row to shrink it to four at 67-63. After Isaiah McKay knocked down a pair of free throws to end the scoreless drought, Schafer drained a contested corner three to make it a one possession game with 36 seconds to go in the game. Concordia got the job done at the free throw line, however, as they stepped up and knocked down 7-8 in the final 25 seconds to close out the 76-70 victory.
 
Concordia is back in action at Gangelhoff Center tomorrow night with a 5:30 p.m. tip-off against Sioux Falls.