ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (3-3, 1-1 NSIC) scored the first league victory for interim head coach Eric Johnson with a 75-70 win over Southwest Minnesota State (3-6, 0-3 NSIC) on Saturday evening at Gangelhoff Center.

Concordia juniors Cody Carlson and Jordan Coblin were a handful as a guard-big combo, combining for 48 points led by Carlson's career-high 27 points. He was 10-of-16 shooting, was 3-of-4 from the arc and had seven rebounds. Coblin, meanwhile, flirted with a triple-double with 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting (2-2 3FG), had eight assists, seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots. He also drew nine fouls and got to the foul line eight times (7-8).

Concordia made 50 percent from the field (26-52) and from three-point distance (7-14) while holding SMSU to just 30 percent (9-30) from the arc and 36.8 percent (25-68) from the floor.

SMSU jumped out to the early advantage with an 11-2 lead in the first three and a half minutes as Nick Dufault came out hot, hitting back-to-back three-pointers with Cliff McCray also connecting from deep. SMSU made three of its first four from distance in the hot start. Dufault finished with 20 points including 5-of-10 three-point shooting to lead SMSU on the night. The rest of the Mustangs combined to go 4-of-20 from long range, though.

From there, Carlson would assert his authority, as Coblin found him for a dunk inside on the next possession and then Coblin knocked down a three-pointer to start a 13-2 run to claim CSP's first lead at 15-13 with 11:44 to play in the half. Concordia held SMSU to just two points over a nearly six minute stretch of play to turn the tables.

Trailing by three a few minutes later (20-17), Carlson once again was a force as a dunk and a pair of three-pointers sparked a 14-0 run across two and a half minutes to take a double-digit lead (31-20) with 6:19 to play in the half. The Golden Bears led by as many as 13 points in the half, going up 38-25 with just over four minutes to go on a Carlson layup.

Carlson had 16 of his 27 points in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting. The Golden Bears continued to lead by double-digits into the break, 43-33 in a half that featured four ties and four lead changes.

The Golden Bears continued to maintain at least a two possession lead as SMSU narrowed the margin to six on Braedan Hanson's three-pointer with 14:28 to go to make it a 49-43 CSP lead. Another three-pointer by Dufault with 10:28 to go kept SMSU within seven, 55-48 when Concordia plowed ahead for six straight points to reclaim a strong 13-point lead, 61-48 with just over eight minutes remaining.

But for the next five and a half minutes, points were tough to come by against the Mustangs allowing SMSU to reclaim a 66-65 lead with 2:20 to go after a 12-1 scoring run that spanned 4:12 of clock time.

A strong left-handed finish by Coblin, who converted at the line for the three-point play put CSP back in front 68-66 with under two minutes to play. The Mustangs responded with a Grant Kramer three-pointer with just over a minute left to reclaim the one point lead, though.

On the ensuing possession with the shot clock winding down, Carlson flipped it to Coblin for a clutch three-pointer with 47 seconds to play and a 71-69 lead.

The Golden Bears forced a turnover on defense, and Coblin connected twice at the foul line to make it a two possession game, 73-69 with 31 seconds to play.

Another defensive stop forced a second straight SMSU turnover with sophomore Noah Kannegiesser making one of two at the line to push the margin back to five.

Concordia's defense continued to stifle SMSU in the closing minute, as the Mustangs weren't able to get a three-pointer off until there were five seconds and two seconds left with CSP still leading by five.

Kannegiesser had four points and three rebounds off the bench, going 1-for-6 from the field and 0-of-3 from long distance. He also had three fouls and three turnovers, but his presence on the floor in nearly 33 minutes off the bench resulted in the team's best plus/minus effort with a +17 despite the individual statistics. By comparison, Carlson was a +6 and Coblin a +1 on the night.

Junior guard Carlos Barela added eight points and picked up three steals on the defensive end for CSP.

SMSU's Kenny Byers, who played just 11-plus minutes in the first half after securing his third foul in the opening frame, would play another 11-plus minutes in the second half and finished the night with 17 points and 12 rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting but CSP would force him to foul out with 4:21 to play.

Concordia improves to 12-30 all-time against the Mustangs and has won two in a row against SMSU, both at Gangelhoff Center where CSP is 9-12 against SMSU in 21 meetings at the GC. Concordia has topped SMSU in four of the last six meetings in St. Paul.

The Golden Bears hit the road next weekend in league play, slated to face Upper Iowa and Winona State next Friday and Saturday.