ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (8-13, 3-12 NSIC) was unable to hang on to a halftime lead as Northern State (16-5, 12-3 NSIC) used a big second half to hand the Golden Bears a 90-79 loss at Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears led for nearly the entire opening 20 minutes of the contest and held a 40-39 lead at the half, but NSU flipped the script in the second half and outscored CSP 51-39 after the break to claim the victory. The Wolves made it four straight wins in the all-time series as CSP fell to 7-30 in 37 meetings against Northern State.
After CSP connected on 48.3% (14-29) from the field and 70.0% (7-10) from deep in the opening half, the Golden Bears dropped to 37.5% (12-32) and 28.6% (2-7), respectively, in the second half. On the other side, NSU hit just 40.6% (13-32) from the floor before the break and 59.3% (16-27) after. Despite the loss, Concordia did manage a 26-24 edge in points in the paint, a 19-8 edge in points off of turnovers and an 18-9 edge in second chance scoring on the night.
CSP's leading duo of
Bryndan Matthews and
Isaiah McKay paced the squad on the offensive end as Matthews poured in a team-best 22 points while McKay added 21. Matthews also chipped in eight boards and a pair of steals while McKay contributed three rebounds and three assists.
Matthews and McKay were not the only Golden Bears to reach double figures as
Hayden Baughman connected on 4-6 from three-point range to finish with 15 points and five rebounds while
Max Keefe scored 10.
Justin Decker was a force for Northern State as he led all scorers with 25 points on an efficient 10-14 shooting while Bo Fries and Mason Stark each added 15 points apiece.
The Golden Bears jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead in the first two plus minutes and held an advantage for much of the rest of the half as the two teams traded buckets. Concordia's lead reached six at 16-10 a few minutes later following five straight points for CSP before NSU buried two threes in a row a couple of possessions later to even the score at 19-19. CSP answered with nine of the next 11 with three three-pointers from three different players to build their largest lead of the half at 28-21. Two threes the other had it back down to one before Northern State pulled back even at 33-33 and 35-35 in the final five minutes of the half. Concordia jumped back out front down the stretch of the opening 20 minutes before eventually taking a slim 40-39 lead into the break. The two teams combined to hit 16-25 (64.0%) from deep in the half.
NSU came out firing to start the second half with an early 11-0 run as they took their first lead of the night and quickly built a double-digit edge at 52-42. The Golden Bears came up with an answer with seven points in a row to close the gap back to within one possession before regaining the lead at the 12:29 mark with a score of 58-57. That lead proved to be short-lived, however, as the Wolves rattled off another big run, this time a 12-0 burst, to regain a double figure advantage. CSP managed to shrink the margin back to six with 6:30 left on the clock, but that would be all the closer they would get as the Wolves kept Concordia at bay in the final few minutes. The Golden Bears once again pulled to within six at 82-76 before Northern State finished out a 90-79 victory.
Concordia is back in action tomorrow night with a 5:30 p.m. tip-off against MSU Moorhead.
