ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (7-15, 5-13 NSIC) put up an incredible 61 points in the second half to grab a 92-81 win over Minnesota Crookston (9-15, 5-13 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
With the score tied 31-31 at the break, the Golden Bears caught absolute fire in the second half as they made 19 of their 26 shots (73.1%), four of the their seven threes (57.1%) and 19 of their 21 free throws (90.5%) to finish with a season-best 61 points. CSP's second half total was their largest in a half since scoring 68 points in the first half against Judson on Dec. 18, 2009 in a 110-78 victory. Concordia finished the game shooting a season-best 61.5% (32-52), marking their best effort since hitting 62.0% against Winona State on Feb. 22, 2019.
Concordia continued to find success against the Golden Eagles as they improved to 24-7 in the all-time series and 13-2 on their home court.
The incredible shooting performance ended up being essential in the victory as UMC utilized a 14-5 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 18-9 advantage in turnovers forced to attempt 24 more shots than CSP, but they managed to hit just 29 of those 76 shots (38.2%) and 12 of their 31 attempts (38.7%) from beyond the arc.
While the shooting was the big story, the Golden Bears also took advantage of a massive 21-4 edge in fast break points in addition to a 44-34 edge in points in the paint and a 26-19 edge in bench points.
Max Keefe continued to produce at a high level as he reached double figures for the sixth time in seven games, scoring a career-best 23 points to go along with a career-best 10 boards for his first double-double. Keefe did it on an efficient 7-10 shooting, 4-5 from three-point range and 5-6 from the free throw line in nearly 35 minutes of action.
Keefe was one of five Golden Bears players to reach double figures as
Jordan Coblin,
Lee Higgins and
Cody Carlson joined him from the starting lineup and
Jacob Shields joined off the bench. Coblin added a double-double of his own as he matched the DII-era record at CSP with 11 assists to go along with 17 points on 5-9 shooting in the win. That total has been reached three previous times at the Division II level at Concordia, most recently on Feb. 15, 2013 by Terez VanPelt.
Jacob Shields was even more efficient as he hit 7-9 from the floor and 2-2 from deep to finish with 16 points while
Lee Higgins put up 13 points on 5-8 shooting as well as eight boards and four assists while
Cody Carlson also had 13 points on 5-9 shooting.
The NSIC's all-time leading scorer, Harrison Cleary, really had to work for his points on the night as it took him 21 shots to score his 22 points in the loss. He finished just 7-21 from the floor and 3-7 from three-point range.
The Golden Bears set the tone early on as they scored seven of the game's first nine points before pushing it out to seven at 11-4. It continued to grow from there as CSP responded to a UMC bucket with a 12-5 run to extend the lead to 23-11 with 7:12 to go in the half. The Golden Eagles answered with a run of their own, this time a 14-5 burst, to cut it to three at 28-25 before evening the score in the final minute at 31-31.
After the break, Minnesota Crookston took their first lead of the night before extending it to five at 41-36 with 10 of the first 15 points of the half. That lead would eventually reach as many as six at 47-41 and again at 49-43 just over six minutes in before Concordia turned things around. With UMC still out front 57-52 with 10:52 to play in the contest, Concordia scored the next nine points to take control in the game by regaining the lead at 61-57. The Golden Bears spent much of the rest of the half maintaining a slim advantage, but Minnesota Crookston managed to keep it close as they tied it up several times, including as late as 79-79 with 3:05 to play, before CSP pulled away. The decisive blow came in the form of an 11-0 run to push the lead to 90-79 in the final minute before a pair of late free throws iced the 92-81 victory for the Golden Bears.
Concordia will look to make it back-to-back wins as they travel to Wayne State on Friday before wrapping up their NSIC road slate on Saturday at Augustana. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
