ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-16, 6-14 NSIC) closes out the regular season at home this weekend as they host Winona State (15-11, 12-8 NSIC) on Friday before taking on Upper Iowa (17-9, 14-6 NSIC) on Senior Day on Saturday.

IT'S A SLAM DUNK, DON'T DRIVE DRUNK
Friday night's game with Winona State will be centered around the Northern Sun's "It's a Slam Dunk, Don't Drive Drunk" campaign in which all spectators will be encouraged to pledge not to drive drunk.

SENIOR DAY
In between the men's and women's games on Saturday against Upper Iowa, Concordia's two seniors will be honored on Senior Day as Max Keefe and Perion Little will be recognized with a brief on-court ceremony.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears grabbed a big road win with a 93-89 overtime win at Wayne State on Friday before falling to Augustana 92-71 on Saturday.

In the win, Concordia lived up to their reputation as one of the more efficient offensive teams in the league as they connected on 55.2% (32-58) from the floor, 42.1% (8-19) from deep and 77.8% (21-27) from the free throw line in the win. CSP was especially good after the break as they hit 61.5% (16-26) in the second half along with an impressive 71.4% (5-7) from three-point range en route to scoring 47 points to force overtime.
 
CSP took advantage of a career night from Lee Higgins in the win as the junior poured in a career-best 25 points in an extremely efficient performance. Higgins connected on 7-10 from the floor, 3-4 from beyond the arc and 8-10 from the free throw line. He also added eight boards, four assists and a block. Overall on the weekend, Higgins put up 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.

WSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Friday's meeting with Winona State with a record of 7-47 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 four wins in the past 10 and five in the past 14 meetings. In 22 meetings in St. Paul, CSP is 2-20.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
In the Dec. 14 meeting, CSP was unable to turn another impressive offensive performance into a victory as they fell to Winona State 79-77.

For the third consecutive contest, the Golden Bears shot 50.0% or better from the floor as they finished at 50.9% (29-57) in the game. CSP was also efficient from beyond the arc and at the charity stripe as they finished at 47.6% (10-21) from three-point range and 81.8% (9-11) from the free throw line. Concordia was especially effective in the first half as they connected on 63.0% (17-27) from the floor and 66.7% (6-9) from deep in the opening 20 minutes.
 
The Golden Bears also managed a 33-28 advantage in rebounding as well as a 36-34 advantage in points in the paint. Turnovers played a major role as 17 Concordia turnovers led to 22 points for WSU while nine Winona State turnovers led to just nine points for CSP.
 
One night after Jordan Coblin delivered a career-best effort, Carlos Barela followed with one of his own as he scored a career-high 23 points on 7-13 shooting, 4-6 from deep and 5-5 from the free throw line in the game. The junior transfer added six points, three assists and two steals in 37 minutes in the contest.
 
Jacob Shields was even more efficient as he missed just one of his six shots while scoring 12 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds. Jordan Coblin fell just one rebound shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine boards as well.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS
The Warriors head into the final weekend of the regular season in a tie for third in the NSIC South with Minnesota State as both teams hold a 12-8 record in conference play. After dropping the first three NSIC games, the Warriors have been one of the top teams in the league, including picking up eight wins in their past 11 games.

Last weekend, Winona State fell just short against the NSIC South-leading Sioux Falls Cougars in a low-scoring contest with a 51-49 final on Friday night. WSU bounced back with a 68-56 win over Southwest Minnesota State on Senior Night to end their regular season home slate on a high note.

Caleb Wagner and Kevion Taylor have carried the load for the Warriors as they average over half of the team's 75.2 points per game as Wagner has put up 20.5 points and Taylor has added 19.7 on the year. Taylor also leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game while Wagner is tied with Devin Whitelow for the team lead in assists per game with 3.5.

UIU SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Saturday's matchup, the Golden Bears hold a record of 14-18 against the Peacocks. CSP has found most of their success against UIU in Fayette as they have won nine of 16 meetings there. 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 10-1 in the series.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
Back on Dec. 13, the Golden Bears fell short in a high-scoring contest at Upper Iowa as the Peacocks claimed a 104-91 victory.
 
In a game where both teams combined for 55 fast break points and 27 made three-pointers while also shooting 50.0% or better, it was the Peacocks that came out on top.

One of the big factors was turnovers as the Peacocks turned 15 CSP turnovers into 18 points while the Golden Bears finished with just four points off of UIU's eight points. Upper Iowa also held an edge beyond the arc as they hit 16-34 (47.1%) compared to 11-24 (45.8%) for Concordia. CSP did control play down low on the night as they finished with a 40-26 edge in points in the paint while also holding a 36-35 edge on the glass and an 11-6 edge in points in the paint.

Jordan Coblin played a big role in getting the Golden Bears back in it late as he scored 21 of his career-best 31 points after the break The junior got to the free throw line early and often as he connected on 13-17 from the charity stripe to go along with five assists and three boards in 35 minutes.
 
Noah Kannegiesser added an efficient performance off the bench as he hit 8-13 from the floor, including a red-hot 5-7 from deep, to finish with 21 points and four rebounds. Cody Carlson added a double-double, his second of the year, while Max Keefe also reached double figures with 11 points.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
Upper Iowa enters the weekend with a mathematical chance to grab a share of the NSIC South regular season crown as the Peacocks sit in second place, two games behind Sioux Falls in first. UIU caught fire midway through the season and haven't looked back as they won six in a row to kick off a stretch in which they have won 10 of 12 heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Last weekend, Upper Iowa took care of business on their home court as they grabbed a 64-55 win over Southwest Minnesota State before keeping the chase for the regular season title alive with a 75-69 win over USF on Saturday night.

Upper Iowa has three different players average double figures in scoring this season, led by 14.2 points per game from Jareese Williams. Joe Smoldt has added 12.4 points while Jake Hilmer has chipped in 12.2. Williams also ranks second on the team with 4.5 rebounds per night while Hilmer's 4.7 assists per game lead the way for UIU.

POSTSEASON PICTURE
With just two regular season contests left, much is still up in the air in regards to seeding in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament.

With wins in two of their last three games, the Golden Bears have moved into sole possesion of seventh place in the south, two games clear of SMSU in eighth and just a game behind Wayne State in sixth. CSP holds the tiebreaker over the Mustangs, ensuring they finish as no worse than the seventh seed, while a sixth place finish is still attainable with a strong weekend for Concordia.

Looking at potential matchups in next Wednesday's opening round game, CSP will travel to one of the top three teams in the NSIC North in Northern State, Minnesota Duluth and MSU Moorhead. NSU holds a two-game lead over UMD in second, while UMD also holds a two-game lead over MSUM in third.

NSIC LEADERS
Throughout the conference season, Concordia has been an efficient offensive squad as they rank second in the NSIC in field goal percentage (47.5%) and third in three-point percentage (39.8%). The Golden Bears also rank near the top in a few other offensive categories, ranking third in assists (14.3) and seventh in threes made (8.6).
 
Individually, Jordan Coblin ranks in the top-20 of the league in seven different categories. His 16.5 points per game rank 12th while his 4.7 assists per game rank third. He also sits in 12th in minutes (33.2), 16th in field goal percentage (45.7%), 14th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2) and 20th in steals (1.0).
 
Cody Carlson has been effective on the glass as he ranks 17th in rebounding (5.9) and 14th in defensive rebounding (4.5). In additon, Jacob Shields ranks 13th in blocks (0.7) while Max Keefe ranks 20th (0.7).