ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (6-13, 4-11 NSIC) fell behind early in an 88-60 loss at Northern State (16-5, 12-3 NSIC) on Friday night.
 
The Wolves led from wire to wire as they made it six wins in a row in the series while picking up their 21^st win in 22 tries in Aberdeen between the two schools.
 
While the Golden Bears managed a significant 38-20 edge in bench scoring, NSU took advantage of an 18-9 edge in forced turnovers for a 19-6 edge in points off of those turnovers. Northern State also held a 43-32 advantage in rebounding while connected of 47.0% (31-66) from the floor and 36.7% (11-30) from deep while holding CSP to 39.0% (23-59) shooting and 29.6% (8-27) from beyond the arc.
 
Lee Higgins provided a major bright spot for the Golden Bears as he hit 6-8 from the floor and 2-3 from deep for a team-best 16 points in 22 minutes. Cody Carlson also reached double figures with 10 points and three assists in 20 minutes of action.
 
Carlos Barela grabbed a season-best 10 boards off the bench while George Scharlau tacked on seven points and five rebounds on the night. Mac Wieczorek added six points on 2-4 from three-point range in just 13 minutes off the bench.
 
Four of Northern State's five starters reached double digits in scoring, led by a game-best 23 points on 8-14 shooting and 7-10 from the free throw line to go along with eight rebounds. Gabe King matched the rebounding total with eight of his own in addition to 16 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting and 4-4 from deep. Mason Stark added 15 points while Andrew Kallman chipped in 10.
 
The Wolves got off to a strong start with the first four points of the game and 12 of 14 to build a double-digit edge by the 15:46 mark. CSP had it back to seven with a three on the other end, but a 9-4 run pushed it out to 12 at 21-9 seven minutes into the contest. Northern State doubled up the Golden Bears at 28-14 before ballooning it all the way out to 34 with a massive 21-0 run spanning five minutes late in the half. Higgins broke the streak with a late layup as NSU held a 53-21 advantage heading into the break.
 
Concordia grabbed back-to-back buckets to start to trim the NSU lead, but a 7-0 run in favor of the Wolves quickly turned the tide back in their favor as their lead reach 60-25. CSP cut it back to 30 following an 11-6 run heading into the first media timeout of the second half, but once again Northern State regained the edge with the next five points in a row. The lead reached as high as 36 just past the midway point of the half before a 12-0 burst for the Golden Bears over the next five and a half minutes gave Concordia some late momentum. That proved to be al the closer they would get, however, as the Wolves slowed that momentum en route to claiming an 88-60 victory on the night.
 
The Golden Bears will look to bounce back tomorrow night as they take on the Dragons of MSU Moorhead on the road at 5:30 p.m.