ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (9-19), the eighth seed in the NSIC South will face Northern State (22-6), the top seed in the NSIC North, in the opening round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament on Wednesday night in Aberdeen.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears erased a 15 point halftime deficit to claim a dramatic comeback win at Winona State on Friday night before falling to Upper Iowa in the final game of the regular season on Saturday.

Bryndan Matthews became the program's all-time leading scorer in Friday night's win, surpassing Craig Heiman's mark of 1,768. Concordia connected on an incredible 76.0% (19-25) from the floor in the second half of the victory over the Warriors as they finished the game at 62.0% (31-50) shooting overall.

Matthews earned NSIC South Player of the Week honors as he reached the 30-point plateau for the third time of the season on Friday night as he led the Golden Bears to a win by matching his career high with 34 points to go along with 10 boards, five assists and a pair of steals while shooting 15-20 from the floor and 11-13 in the second half. Isaiah McKay contributed 15.5 points per game while knocking down three three-pointers in both contests to finish the weekend 6-13 from deep.

NSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears hold a 7-30 all-time series record against the Wolves, with NSU grabbing four wins in a row. Concordia has found wins hard to come by in Aberdeen as they have claimed just one win in 20 trips to Northern State. CSP's lone road win in the series came back on Jan. 31, 2015 as the Golden Bears claimed a 66-65 overtime win.

LAST MEETING VS NSU
In the lone regular season meeting back on Feb. 1, Concordia was was unable to hang on to a halftime lead as Northern State used a big second half to hand the Golden Bears a 90-79 loss 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. 
 
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.

ABOUT THE WOLVES
After an incredible season that saw Northern State reach the NCAA Championship game, the Wolves have put together another impressive year as they snagged the NSIC North crown for the second year in a row.

Heading into the postseason, NSU has already banked 22 wins as they hold a record of 22-6 overall and 18-4 in league play. The Wolves look poised to return to the NCAA Tournament again this season as they ranked third in the first NCAA region rankings that came out last week. Northern State has been riding high over the past few weeks as they have picked up seven wins in their last eight, including a weekend sweep at UMary and Minot State to close out the regular season.

Four of Northern State's players are averaging double figures, with three other players who average between seven and nine points per game. Senior guard Ian Smith is the team's top scorer, averaging 14.0 points per game while he also leads the team in assists per game (5.4). Their other top three scorers (Justin Decker, Parker Fox, and Bo Fries) are all shooting 49.1% or better from the floor. The team shares the rebounding duties, as five players are averaging between four and six rebounds a game.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Golden Bears carry a 4-15 all-time record in the conference tournament including a 4-11 mark in opening round competition. Concordia is also 2-11 in tournament road games, with their two wins coming in 2004-05 at Wayne State (93-84) and 2016-17 at MSU Moorhead (86-78). The Golden Bears have yet to capture multiple wins in a conference tournament.

LAST YEAR IN THE TOURNAMENT
In the opening round of last year's tournament, CSP saw their season come to a close with an 80-52 loss at then-#11 Northern State.

Northern State led from start to finish as they completely stifled Concordia, holding CSP to just 33.9% (21-62) from the floor on the night. The Wolves were nearly as effective on the offensive end as they hit 53.2% (33-62) in the contest. NSU also took advantage of a 29-19 edge in bench scoring as well as a 19-12 edge in points off of turnovers and 13-6 edge in second chance points in the win.
 
Concordia once again held their own on the glass as they finished +2 in the offensive rebounding department at 15-13 against the best rebounding team in the league.
 
Bryndan Matthews and Avan Ward continued their season-long trend of pacing the Golden Bear offense as Matthews led the team with 13 points and Ward added 11. Matthews was an even 50.0% (6-12) from the floor while scooping up eight boards and a pair of steals while Ward hit 5-12 and chipped in two rebounds and two assists.

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 seventh in the conference and 84th in NCAA DII in scoring (18.9) while ranking second in the conference and 59th in the nation in rebounding (8.4). Matthews also registers in at sixth in the NSIC and 108th in the nation in assists per game (4.3), fifth in the NSIC and 50th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3) and second in the NSIC and 28th in the nation in field goal percentage (58.5%) all in 37.1 minutes per game.
 
In addition, Isaiah McKay ranks near the top in a few categories as well. McKay ranks just behind Matthews in scoring (18.4) to rank ninth in the league and rank 99th in the country while also ranking second in the conference and ninth in the nation in free throw percentage (90.5%), 10th in the NSIC in threes made per game (2.3) and 13th in the conference in assists per game (3.2).

Hayden Baughman also ranks 15th in the league in threes made per game (2.2) as well as seventh in three-point percentage (46.7%).

MAKING HISTORY
Last Friday night in Winona, Bryndan Matthews surpassed Craig Heiman's mark of 1,768 points to become the program's all-time leading scorer. The Eagan native is now the program's all-time leader in field goals made (669), games started (109), minutes played (3,882) as well as scoring (1,795), second in rebounding (816), second in rebounds per game (7.1), second in free throws made (387), fifth in assists (303) and sixth in steals (140) in his career at CSP.