ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-18, 3-17 NSIC) closes out the regular season this weekend as they travel to Winona State (11-15, 8-12 NSIC) on Friday and Upper Iowa (6-20, 3-17 NSIC) on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears saw the Wildcats pull away with a late run on Friday night before seeing a late run of their own fall short against Augustana on Senior Day on Saturday.

CSP shot an extremely efficient 50.0% (52-104) while their opponents were even better at 51.2% (63-123) in the two games. Concordia was outscored 27-19 off of turnovers, 19-7 in second chance points and 59-39 in bench scoring over the weekend.

Bryndan Matthews moved to within 19 points of becoming the program's all-time leading scorer as he averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 boards and 4.5 assists on 66.7% (16-24) from the field. Isaiah McKay followed close behind with 18.5 points to go along with 3.5 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 2.0 threes made per game.

WSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Friday's meeting with Winona State with a record of 6-46 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 three wins in the past eight and four in the past 12 meetings. In 27 meetings in Winona, CSP is 4-23.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on Dec. 15, CSP was unable to keep pace with Winona State in an 82-66 loss at Gangelhoff Center.

WSU was opportunistic in the turnover category as they turned 11 CSP turnovers into 21 points while the Golden Bears managed just seven points on eight Winona State turnovers. The Warriors also edged the Golden Bears in shooting percentage (49.1%-46.4%), threes made (9-5), rebounds (32-30) and second chance points (7-2) in an all-around impressive performance.
 
Concordia finished the night with three players in double figures as Bryndan Matthews paced the squad with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists to pick up the double-double. Elliot Kane added a solid showing with 14 points on 6-10 from the floor while also chipping in five boards and four assists and Isaiah McKay put up 10 points, two rebounds and two assists as well. Max Keefe added nine points off the bench as he hit 3-4 from the floor and 2-2 from the line.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS
Winona State heads into the final weekend of the regular season on a bit of a slide as they have dropped four of their last five games after winning four in a row prior to that. The slide has dropped WSU to 11-15 overall and 8-12 in NSIC play.

The Warriors have been quite a streaky team in the 2018-19  as they have put together two different streaks of three or more wins and as well as two different streaks of three losses or more. This past weekend, WSU dropped a heartbreaker in double overtime to Sioux Falls in an 84-80 loss on Friday before falling to SMSU by just two points on Saturday with a score of 69-67.

Kevion Taylor has stepped up as the go-to scorer for the Warriors as he averages a team-high 16.5 points to go along with 6.5 boards while Caleb Wagner joins him in double figures with 12.5 points per game to go along with 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per night. The trio of Tommy Gathje, Devin Whitelow and Mason Domask all average just over eight points a night with Whitelow dishing out a team-best 4.3 assists per game.

UIU SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Saturday's matchup, the Golden Bears hold a record of 14-16 against the Peacocks. CSP has found most of their success against UIU in Fayette as they have won nine of 14 meetings there, including five of the last eight. 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 8-1 in the series.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
On Dec. 14, the Golden Bears saw Upper Iowa pull away in the second half in an 89-73 loss at Gangelhoff Center.

Upper Iowa buried the Golden Bears from deep with 15 threes on 34 attempts (44.1%) while connecting on 50.8% (30-59) from the floor overall. Bench scoring also favored UIU in a big way as they outscored Concordia 48-14 off the bench.
 
On the other end, CSP finished just 20.7% from beyond the arc (6-29) and 41.8% (28-67) from the floor as they were unable to keep up their solid early season pace of efficiency. Concordia, however, did hold a 39-32 edge in rebounding, including an 11-3 edge on the offensive glass, as well as a 36-24 edge in points in the paint.
 
Isaiah McKay provided a bright spot for the Golden Bears with a game-high 26 points on 11-18 shooting to go along with eight boards while Bryndan Matthews tacked on 18 points on 7-10 shooting with seven rebounds. No other Golden Bear reached double figures as Elliot Kane scored seven points with three assists while Lee Higgins and Hayden Baughman each had six points.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
After rattling off three straight wins to pull even at 3-3 in conference play, the Peacocks have dropped 14 straight games to fall to 3-17 in league play and 6-20 overall. 

Last weekend, Upper Iowa dropped a pair of games on the road with a 90-65 loss at SMSU on Friday and an 80-60 loss at Sioux Falls on Saturday. In 10 home games this season, UIU has gone 2-8 with their last home win coming back on Dec. 30 against Winona State.

With a high-paced offense, the Peacocks have five players currently averaging in double figures in scoring, led by 14.1 points per game from Jareese Williams. Joe Smoldt (13.4), Munachiso Okonkwo (11.2), Chris Olson (10.8) and Kyle Haber (10.8) all join him in double figures with Smoldt leading the team with 3.6 assists per game and Okonkwo leading the team with 5.4 rebounds per game.

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 ninth in the conference and 90th in NCAA DII in scoring (18.6) while ranking third in the conference and 71st in the nation in rebounding (8.2). Matthews also registers in at sixth in the NSIC and 107th in the nation in assists per game (4.2), sixth in the NSIC and 56th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3) and second in the NSIC and 24th in the nation in field goal percentage (58.8%) all in a conference-leading 37.4 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 (18.6) to rank eighth in the league and rank 89th in the country while also ranking third in the conference and 10th in the nation in free throw percentage (90.2%), 11th in the NSIC in threes made per game (2.3) and 12th in the conference in assists per game (3.3).

Hayden Baughman also ranks 10th in the league in threes made per game (2.3) as well as ninth in three-point percentage (46.6%).

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 now the program's all-time leader in field goals made (649) and minutes played (3,814) while also ranking second in scoring (1,750), second in rebounding (793), third in rebounds per game (7.0), second in free throws made (382), fifth in assists (293) and sixth in steals (135) in his career at CSP. Matthews enters the weekend just 18 points behind Craig Heiman's program record of 1,768 points.