ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-17, 6-15 NSIC) fell 74-60 to Winona State (16-11, 13-8 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Warriors continued their dominance in the all-time series as they improved to 48-7 against the Golden Bears and 21-2 in St. Paul.
Turnovers played a big role in the contest as Winona State forced 15 CSP turnovers and turned them into 17 points while Concordia turned seven WSU turnovers into four points. The Warriors also utilized a 32-26 edge in points in the paint and a 10-2 edge in second chance points in the win. CSP did manage a 34-32 advantage on the glass, however, as well as a 16-10 advantage in bench scoring and an 8-4 advantage in fast breaks.
Both teams struggled from the floor in the opening half as CSP shot 33.3% and WSU shot 36.7% before both teams heated up in a big way after the break with the Golden Bears shooting 55.6% and the Warriors shooting 52.9%. Overall for the game, Concordia finished at 45.1% (23-51) while Winona State knocked down 45.3% (29-64).
Lee Higgins led the squad with 15 points on 5-8 shooting in nearly 39 minutes of action while
Carlos Barela joined him double figures with 11 points to go along with six boards.
Cody Carlson added nine points while
Jordan Coblin chipped in seven points, six rebounds and four assists.
Winona State's duo of Kevion Taylor and Caleb Wagner accounted for 63.5% of the team's offense as Taylor led all played with 24 points on 9-18 from the floor and 5-11 from deep while Caleb Wagner followed close behind with 23 points and five assists.
The Warriors used a couple of early threes to build a 6-2 advantage before back-to-back buckets for the Golden Bears put CSP in front for the first time of the night. That proved to be the first of four lead changes as WSU regained the lead at 12-9 before another 5-0 run put the Golden Bears back in front. The Concordia lead eventually reached four at 19-15 with just under eight minutes to go in the half, but that proved to be their final lead as Winona State took the lead for good with a 12-0 run spanning nearly six minutes. The two teams traded buckets in the final minute of the half as the Warriors took a 29-21 lead into the break.
The lead reached double figures 10 seconds into the second half before back-to-back threes from CSP's two big men trimmed the margin all the way back down to four. The Golden Bears further shrunk the deficit to three at 33-30 with 17:13 left on the clock before the Warriors started to turn the momentum the other way. Over the next five and a half minutes, Winona State rattled off a decisive 23-6 run capped off by 10 straight points to make it 56-36. Concordia chipped away at the lead a few times down the stretch, but they were never able to pull closer than 14 the rest of the way as WSU closed out the 74-60 win.
The Golden Bears close out the regular season on Senior Day as they play host to Upper Iowa tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.
