ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-3, 1-1 NSIC) hits the road for their first NSIC road weekend of the season as they travel to Upper Iowa (4-5, 1-2 NSIC) on Friday and Winona State (3-6, 0-3 NSIC) on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears picked up a split in the NSIC opening weekend as they fell just short in a 78-71 loss to Sioux Falls before defeating SMSU 75-70.

CSP put up a more efficient performance from beyond the arc and from the free throw line to aid their effort as they finished 17-46 (37.0%) from deep and 29-40 (72.5%) from the charity stripe while their opponents were held to 16-49 (32.7%) from three-point range and 24-43 (55.8%) from the line. Concordia also held an edge in the turnover category as they forced 26 turnovers and committed 23.

The duo of Jordan Coblin and Cody Carlson played a starring role over the weekend as Coblin led the team with 21.0 points, 7.5 assists and 7.0 boards while Carlson added 18.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. Coblin showed incredible consistency with at least 21 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in both games while Carlson exploded for a massive 27 points and six boards on 10-16 shooting and 3-4 from three in the win over SMSU.

UIU SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Friday's matchup, the Golden Bears hold a record of 14-17 against the Peacocks. CSP has found most of their success against UIU in Fayette as they have won nine of 15 meetings there, including five of the last nine. On their own home court, the Golden Bears have gone 5-9 against the Peacocks. Concordia's best stretch in the series came from 2004-12 with a record of 11-3 during that span. Since December 2014, Upper Iowa has gone 9-1 in the series.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
On Feb. 23, CSP ran into a hot-shooting Upper Iowa team as the Peacocks drained 17 threes to defeat the Golden Bears 95-77 in Fayette.

The Golden Bears were led by sophomore Lee Higgins, who put up a career-high 22 points on 8-16 shooting in the contest. Joining him in double figures were seniors Isaiah McKay with 16 points, and Elliot Kane and Bryndan Matthews who each put up 11.
 
Matthews also led all players in rebounds, with 13, for his ninth double-double this season and tenth game with 10+ rebounds. In addition to his double-double performance, the Eagan native led the team in assists (5) and steals (3) on the night.

The Golden Bears were held to a 22.9% shooting percentage throughout the first half, while the Peacocks shot 53.3%. CSP greatly improved in the second half, connecting on 57.9% of their shots, including hitting 6-10 from deep. However, Upper Iowa shot even better in the second frame, draining 69.6% of their attempts and going 8-10 from beyond the arc.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
Upper Iowa opened the season with three wins in their their first five games, including a pair of wins over MIAA competition. Since then, UIU has dropped three of four to fall to 4-5 overall.

Last weekend, Upper Iowa dropped a pair of games on the road as they fell to Wayne State 88-69 on Friday before dropping Saturday's contest to Augustana 86-59 to fall to 1-2 in league play. The Peacocks' first win in conference action came back on Nov. 30 in a win over Winona State.

Early in the season, Upper Iowa has three different players averaging double figures in scoring, led by 14.2 points per game from Jareese Williams. Joe Smoldt has added 10.3 points while Jake Hilmer has chipped in 10.1. Williams also leads the team with 4.9 rebounds per night while Hilmer's 3.9 assists per game lead the way for UIU.

WSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Saturday's meeting with Winona State with a record of 7-46 against the Warriors. Amazingly, WSU won the first 31 meetings from 1986-2008 before CSP registered their first win in the series. Despite the overall record, Concordia has been successful against the Warriors in the past few years with four wins in the past nine and five in the past 13 meetings. In 27 meetings in Winona, CSP is 5-23.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on Feb. 22, Bryndan Matthews became the all-time leading scorer for Concordia-St. Paul as the Golden Bears put together a dominant second half to claim a 75-71 win at Winona State.

It was certainly a memorable night for Matthews as the Eagan native matched his career high with 34 points to bring his career scoring total to 1,784, surpassing Craig Heiman's mark of 1,768 set back in 2006-10. The 30+ point outburst was the senior guard's third of the year and also his third double-double as he pulled down a game-high 10 boards. 

Matthews was not the only Golden Bear to reach double figures in scoring as fellow senior Isaiah McKay poured in 15 points on 6-12 shooting and 3-6 from deep in the win. Cody Carlson added eight points as well.
 
Heading into the half trailing 45-30, Concordia exploded in the second half as they hit 19 of their 25 attempts from the floor (76.0%) to bring their total to 31-50 (62.0%) for the game. Their mark of 62.0% was the sixth-best in program history and best on the road since knocking down 68.9% (42-61) at Minnesota Crookston on Dec. 9, 2006.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS
It's been a bit of an up-and-down season so far for Winona State as WSU opened with three straight losses before winning three in a row, but they have since dropped three in a row to fall to 3-6. The Warriors have been successful on their home court with three wins in four in Winona.

The Warriors are still looking for their first win in NSIC play as they dropped the opener to Upper Iowa before falling twice last weekend to Augustana and Wayne State on the road. Two of the three losses in league action have come by seven or less points as they fell 84-79 to the Peacocks and dropped a 70-63 final to the Warriors.

Kevion Taylor and Caleb Wagner have carried the load for the Warriors as they average nearly half of the team's 69.7 points per game as Taylor has put up 16.8 points and Wagner has added 15.9 on the year. Taylor is also tied with Andrea Lo Biondo for the team lead with 6.9 rebounds per game while he's also tied with Devin Whitelow for the team lead in assists per gaem with 3.0.

NSIC LEADERS
Early in the season, Concordia has taken advantage of a solid defense and an advantage on the glass to find success. CSP has held their opponents to just 40.5% from the floor, good for fourth in the NSIC. Concordia has also limited second chance opportunities as their 29.3 defensive rebounds per game rank third in the NSIC and their 39.5 rebounds per game overall ranks fifth.
 
Individually, Jordan Coblin ranks in the top-10 of the league in five different categories. His 18.2 points per game rank seventh while his 5.4 assists per game rank third. He also sits in eighth in assist/turnover ratio (1.8), ninth in steals (1.4) and fourth in minutes (33.6) on the season.
 
Jacob Shields has provided the Golden Bears with a physical presence as his 1.5 blocks per game sit in seventh and his 6.7 boards per game sit in 13th in the conference. Cody Carlson has added 14.3 points, good for 20th, 6.3 boards, good for 14th, and a 55.7% field goal percentage, good for sixth.