BEMIDJI, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-15, 3-14 NSIC) built a double-digit lead in the opening half before seeing Bemidji State (8-13, 5-12 NSIC) storm back to hand the Golden Bears a 73-58 loss on the road on Friday night.
The Beavers broke the tie in the all-time series between the two schools as CSP dropped to 16-17 in 33 all-time meetings against BSU. Bemidji State continued to find success on their home court in the series as they improved to 12-5 in Bemidji against Concordia.
Three-point shooting proved to be the difference on the night as the Golden Bears allowed a season-high 17 threes made with the Beavers knocking down 17-37 (45.9%). CSP connected on 9-23 (39.1%) from deep on the other end. Overall from the floor, neither team shot a high percentage as BSU hit 40.3% (25-62) and CSP hit 39.3% (24-61).
Bemidji State also won the battle on the glass (39-36) and outscored CSP 15-6 in points off of turnovers. CSP, on the other end, held a 22-10 edge in points in the paint and a 13-9 edge in bench scoring.
Isaiah McKay led the Golden Bears with 15 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists while
Cody Carlson also reached double figures with 14 points and eight boards. McKay hit 6-13 from the floor while Carlson hit 6-9. While
Bryndan Matthews was held to just four points, he added a team-best nine rebounds and six assists in the loss.
Jacob Hoffman paced the Beavers with 19 points and five threes made as four of their five starters reached double figures in the win. Overall, all five BSU starters hit at least two three-points on the night.
After the two teams traded buckets for the opening few minutes, the Golden Bears embarked on an 11-0 run to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 15-5 lead just over five minutes in. The CSP advantage sat in double figures again at 20-10, but the Beavers responded with 10 of the next 12 points to close the gap to two. Bemidji State further chipped away and cut it to one at 24-23 and again at 27-26 before five straight points for CSP pushed it back to six at 32-26. BSU finished off the half with six of the final eight points to bring the score to 34-32 at the break.
The Beavers picked up where they left off from to open the second half as they scored the first five points to take their first lead since the opening minutes of the night at 37-34. Concordia regained the lead with three straight buckets, but that proved to be their last lead of the night as Bemidji State knocked down three consecutive threes to take a 46-40 lead. The lead would not shrink below two possessions the rest of the night as it eventually reached double figures in the final five and a half minutes of the game. With the margin still at six at 58-52 with 7:03 left on the clock, BSU put the game away with a 10-0 run spanning three and a half minutes before settling with a final score of 73-58.
The Golden Bears will look to get back into the win column tomorrow night at Minnesota Crookston for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
