ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (6-10, 4-8 NSIC) returns to Gangelhoff Center this weekend as they host Augustana (11-7, 6-6 NSIC) on Friday and Wayne State (6-15, 3-9 NSIC) on Saturday in NSIC action.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears took part in a pair of high-scoring contests as they fell to St. Cloud State 100-90 on Friday and 101-92 to Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.

Concordia was incredibly efficient offensively as they scored their 91.0 points per game on 54.5% (66-121) shooting, 46.7% (21-45) from three-point range and 82.9% (29-35), besting their opponents in all three areas. CSP got their production from up and down the lineup with six different players tallying at least 9.0 points per game and six different players shooting 50.0% or better from the floor.
 
The top producer of the group was junior guard Jordan Coblin. He led the team with 27.5 points on 67.7% (21-31) from the floor and 66.7% (8-12) from three-point range on the weekend. Coblin added 6.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 4.0 threes made and 1.0 steals per game in the two games, putting up at least 27 points, six assists and four rebounds in each game. He has now scored 22 points or more in four of the last five games.

AUGIE SERIES HISTORY
On Friday, the Golden Bears meet the Vikings for the 28th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 5-22 in the previous 27 meetings. The Vikings have dominated the series in the recent past with 15 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 4-10 record in St. Paul.

LAST MEETING VS AUGIE
Back on Feb. 16, 2019, CSP dropped a hard fought battle on Senior Night in an 83-78 loss to Augustana at Gangelhoff Center.

CSP scored an impressive 47 points on 68.2% (15-22) from the floor in the second half to boost their mark for the game to 56.3% (27-48), but it wasn't enough as turnovers and fast break scoring proved to be a difference maker. Augustana forced 16 CSP turnovers and turned them into 18 points while the Golden Bears used 10 Augie turnovers to score 13 points. The Vikings also held a 13-2 edge in fast break points as well as a 28-16 edge in bench scoring.
 
On Senior Night, the Concordia quintet of seniors combined for 62 of the team's 78 points, led by 21 points apiece from Bryndan Matthews and Isaiah McKay.
 
Matthews came out firing with 11 points in the first eight minutes of the game before finishing the night 9-15 from the field to go along with eight boards and five assists.
 
McKay was even more efficient as he knocked down 6-9 overall, 3-4 from three-point range and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Fellow senior Evan Wesenberg also reached double figures in scoring with a season-best 10 points on 3-4 shooting in his 18 minutes of work.

ABOUT THE VIKINGS
After finishing the regular season strong and claiming a share of the NSIC South regular season title last season, the Vikings looked to pick up where they left off with 11 wins in their first 13 games and six of their first seven in NSIC play. That momentum has been slowed considerably since the turn of the year as Augie has dropped their last five in a row.

Last weekend at home, Augustana fell just short in an 82-77 loss to Northern State on Friday before falling to MSU Moorhead 78-68 on Saturday. Tyler Riemersma's big weekend wasn't enough as the junior averaged 24.5 points over the two losses.

Riemersma is one of four Augie players to average double figures on the season as Matt Cartwright, Matt Todd and Riemersma all average over 13.0 points per game. Riemersma nearly averages a double-double with 13.4 points and 9.8 boards on the year.

WSC SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Saturday night in the all-time series between Concordia and Wayne State, WSC holds a slight edge as they have claimed 23 wins while CSP has picked up 18 in the 41 previous 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 13 wins in the last 17. Concordia has found much more success on their home court as they have gone 12-9 in St. Paul and 6-14 in Wayne in the series.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
In the last meeting on Feb. 15, 2019, the Golden Bears saw Wayne State put together a big late run to hand CSP a 94-74 loss at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears found themselves within two of the NSIC South-leading Wildcats at 63-61 with 9:05 left to play in the game before WSC finished on a 31-13 run to pull away.
 
After shooting a solid 50.0% (18-36) in the first half, Wayne State was even better after the break as they connected on 63.3% (19-30) in the second half to finish the game at 56.1% (37-66). On the other side, CSP finished with a mark of 44.6% (25-56) for the game. The Wildcats took care of business down low with a 50-32 edge in points in the paint while also holding a 34-28 edge in rebounding and an 11-7 edge in second chance points on the night.
 
Concordia had three players reach double figures in scoring as Bryndan Matthews led the way with 18 while McKay had 16 and Higgins had 13. Matthews hit an efficient 7-9 from the floor and snagged seven boards and four assists while McKay dished out six helpers. Matthews moved to within 39 points of the all-time scoring record with the performance. Higgins knocked down three three-pointers to go along with four rebounds and three assists.

ABOUT THE WILDCATS
The Wildcats have been the epitome of a streaky team in the 2019-20 season as they opened on a five-game losing streak, followed it up with five wins in six, and have dropped nine of the last 10. WSC has found much more success on their home court as five of their six wins have come in Wayne.

Last weekend, the Wildcats dropped a pair of contests on their home court by nearly identical scores, falling to MSU Moorhead by a score of 82-71 on Friday and falling to Northern State 82-72 on Saturday. WSC found themselves in deep holes in the first half in both contests before seeing second half rallies come up short in each.

The Wildcats have relied heavily in the quartet of Jordan Janssen, Nick Ferrarini, Nate Mohr and Al'Tavius Jackson as all four have started all 19 games while averaging 9.8 points or more in 29.9 minutes per game or more. Leading the way is Janssen, who is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double with 18.1 points and 10.1 boards to go along with a team-best 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game on the year.

NSIC LEADERS
So far in the conference season, Concordia has been an efficient offensive squad as they lead the league in three-point percentage (41.3%) and rank second in field goal percentage (48.2%). The Golden Bears also rank near the top in several other offensive categories, ranking sixth in threes made (8.9), eighth in scoring (75.8) and eighth in assists (13.7).
 
Individually, Jordan Coblin ranks in the top-20 of the league in nine different categories and in the top-10 in three of those categories. His 18.6 points per game rank eighth while his 5.1 assists per game rank second. He also sits in eighth in minutes (34.2), 11th in field goal percentage (50.5%), 11th in threes made (2.1) and 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3).
 
Cody Carlson also ranks near the top in several areas as he sits in seventh in field goal percentage (53.2%) as well as 13th in rebounding (6.3), putting him in the top-20 in both offensive and defensive rebounding. Carlos Barela ranks 19th in steals (1.1) while Jacob Shields ranks 19th in blocks (0.7).