ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-16, 3-15 NSIC) wraps up their 2018-19 home slate this weekend as they host Wayne State (17-7, 12-6 NSIC) on Friday before taking on Augustana (14-10, 10-8 NSIC) on Senior Day on Saturday.

PINK NIGHT
On Friday, CSP's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will be hosting Pink Night at both the men's and women's basketball games against Wayne State. This initiative is centered on honoring those who are currently fighting cancer, those who are survivors of cancer, and those who may have lost a loved one to cancer. The SAAC group is raising funds for Hope Lodge - a facility located in Minneapolis that provides a free home away from home for cancer patients and their care-givers.
 
CSP's SAAC group plans to take these donations and purchase items that are in need by the shelter such as toiletries and canned food. For those looking to make a donation, members of CSP's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will be going through the stands periodically with donation buckets throughout the night. In addition, SAAC will be selling new pink shirts at the door for $10 with the first 50 students receiving a free shirt. All proceeds from pink shirt sales and donations will go to purchasing items for Hope Lodge.
 
SENIOR NIGHT
Saturday's marks Senior Night for the Golden Bears as they take on Augustana. The team's five seniors, Brandon McRoy, Elliot Kane, Isaiah McKay, Evan Wesenberg and Bryndan Matthews, along with the four seniors from the women's team, will be honored immediately following the conclusion of the women's game with a brief on-court ceremony.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears dropped both contests over the weekend as Bemidji State erased a double-digit CSP lead on Friday before UMC pulled away from Concordia on Saturday.

CSP managed to out-shoot their opponents on the weekend as they hit a combined 42.1% (48-114) compared to 40.9% (52-127) for their opponents. Three-point shooting and turnovers proved to be the difference as BSU and UMC combined to go 32-70 (45.7%) from deep while Concordia was 14-37 (37.8%) and CSP turned it over 24 times while forcing 13 turnovers.

Cody Carlson paced the squad with 12.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in his 28.0 minutes in the two games as he hit an even 50.0% (10-20) from the floor. Bryndan Matthews also scored in double figures with 11.5 points to go along with 6.5 boards, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals on the weekend.

WSC SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Friday night in the all-time series between Concordia and Wayne State, WSC holds a slight edge as they have claimed 22 wins while CSP has picked up 18 in the 40 meetings. Since a stretch from 2006-2011 that saw Concordia win nine of 10 meetings, the Wildcats have turned the momentum in their favor with 12 wins in the last 16. Concordia has found much more success on their home court as they have gone 12-8 in St. Paul and 6-14 in Wayne in the series.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
In the meeting on Jan. 27, Wayne State used a late run to defeat the Golden Bears 77-68 at Rice Auditorium.

Both teams shot over 40.0% in the contest, and each hit six threes, but the Wildcats took advantage of points from the free throw line, cashing in on 21 of 24 attempts (87.5%) compared to CSP's 10 points from the charity stripe. The Wildcats also capitalized on turnovers, scoring 13 points on Concordia errors.
 
The Golden Bears held the advantage in rebounds (37-35) and second chance points (12-9) mainly due to the combined efforts of sophomore Cody Carlson and senior Bryndan Matthews, who finished with 14 and 10 rebounds, respectively. The two teammates both ended with a double-double in the contest, as Matthews had 15 points and Carlson had 13.
 
Isaiah McKay was Concordia's leading scorer, connecting on 10-23 (43.5%) of his shots for 23 points.

ABOUT THE WILDCATS
It's been a huge turnaround for Wayne State as they have followed up a 9-13 conference record last season with an NSIC South leading mark of 12-6 this season. The Wildcats got off to a strong start with five wins in six in non-conference play and they haven't looked back since then.

WSC didn't drop their first league game until the fourth weekend of the regular season as they rattled off five wins in a row before falling to their travel partner Augustana in their final game of 2018. Following another loss to USF, the Wildcats got back in the win column with seven wins in their next nine contests heading into last weekend. A home weekend with SCSU and UMD brought that hot streak to a halt as Wayne State was swept on their home court with a 91-79 loss to SCSU and a 77-72 loss to UMD.

Featuring a veteran roster, the Wildcats have four players that have started every game this season and average double figures in scoring. Leading the way is Trevin Joseph with 16.7 points per game while Kendall Jacks follows close behind with 16.0. Vance Janssen has chipped in 12.9 points per night along with a team-best 3.0 assists per game while Jordan Janssen paces the squad with 7.8 boards per game to go along with 11.2 points so far this season.

AUGIE SERIES HISTORY
On Saturday, the Golden Bears meet the Vikings for the 27th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 5-21 in the previous 26 meetings. The Vikings have dominated the series in the recent past with 14 straight wins over Concordia dating back to CSP's 81-77 win in St. Paul on Jan. 3, 2012. Four of the Golden Bears' five wins in the series have come on their home court as they have compiled a 4-9 record in St. Paul.

LAST MEETING VS AUGIE
Back on Jan. 26, CSP fell on the road to Augustana 78–70 at the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls. The two teams were tied at 41 at halftime, but the Vikings had the better second half to pull out the home victory.

The senior pair of Isaiah McKay and Bryndan Matthews led the Bears on the day. McKay ended with a game-high 19 points, while also adding five assists and four rebounds. Matthews did a little bit of everything in the contest, scoring 16 points, while also collecting nine rebounds, five assists, and a steal.
 
Concordia shot 41.3% (26-63) on the night, but Augustana shot slightly better at 44.6% (29-65). The Bears did outshoot the Vikings from three, making 36.7% (11-30) of their shots compared to Augustana's 26.7% (8-30). CSP held a slight rebounding edge in the game (39-36), but the Vikings capitalized on their nine offensive boards, scoring 13 second chance points compared to CSP's four.  

ABOUT THE VIKINGS
After stringing together a 10-12 record in the Northern Sun last season, the Vikings head into the final two weekends of the regular season with a chance to improve on that mark as they have won 10 of their first 18 conference games so far. Augie also grabbed four wins in six non-conference contests to bring their overall mark to 14-10.

Following a loss to Wayne State in the league opener, Augustana caught fire with seven straight wins to shoot up the conference standings. The Vikings then split the next six games before dropping the next four in a row. Augie snapped the skid last Saturday with an exciting 92-91 in Sioux Falls to remain above .500 in league play.

With leading scorer Tyler Riemersma being limited to just 10 games this season, the trio of Matt Cartwright, AJ Plitzuweit and Michael Schaefer have picked up the scoring slack as all three average at least 13.5 points per game. Cartwright leads the group with 15.9 points while Plitzuweit adds 14.0 points and 4.2 assists and Schaefer adds 13.5 points and 6.2 rebounds.

NCAA/NSIC LEADERS
Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, the Golden Bears have several players rank near the top of the NSIC and the nation in different statistical categories.

Bryndan Matthews has been one of the top players in the country this season as he ranks 14th in the conference and 85th in NCAA DII in scoring (16.6) while ranking second in the conference and 65th in the nation in rebounding (6.9). Matthews also registers in at ninth in the NSIC and 108th in the nation in assists per game (3.4), eighth in the NSIC and 46th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1) and 10th in the NSIC and 29th in the nation in field goal percentage (55.2%) all in 36.4 minutes per game.
 
In addition, Isaiah McKay ranks near the top in a few categories as well. McKay ranks just ahead of Matthews in scoring (17.3) to rank 10th in the league and rank 85th in the country while also ranking fifth in the conference and 19th in the nation in free throw percentage (92.2%).

Hayden Baughman also ranks 14th in the league in threes made per game (2.0) as well as 13th in three-point percentage (45.1%).

CLIMBING THE RANKS
Senior Bryndan Matthews has been a major contributor throughout his four seasons on campus and is climbing the career ranks at Concordia. The Eagan native is up to second in scoring (1,711), second in rebounding (778), fourth in rebounds per game (7.0), second in field goals made (633), second in free throws made (376), sixth in assists (284) and sixth in steals (135) in his career at CSP. Matthews is 57 points shy of Craig Heiman for the all-time scoring record at Concordia.