CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-0) surged in the second half to give head coach Matt Fletcher his first win at the helm in an 80-56 win at Minnesota-Crookston (0-1) on Saturday afternoon.
 
Trailing 33-23 with under three minutes to go in the first half, the Golden Bears caught fire as they closed out the final 22:49 on a 57-23 run to claim a comfortable victory. The 24 point victory was the largest victory in a season opener for CSP since grabbing an 84-59 win over Wisconsin-Parkside back on Nov. 21, 2009.
 
It was a tale of two halves shooting as Concordia connected on 37.1% (13-35) in the opening 20 minutes before hitting a scalding 64.3% (18-28) after the break. A good portion of that second half success came from beyond the arc as the Golden Bears improved on their 14.3% (1-7) mark in the opening half to hit 57.1% (8-14) in the second. CSP also put the clamps on defensively in the second half as they held the Golden Eagles to just 25.9% (7-27) after UMC shot 45.5% (15-33) in the first.
 
The Golden Bears took advantage of opportunities on turnovers as they forced 19 UMC turnovers and turned them into 20 points while the Golden Eagles managed just 10 points on 14 Concordia turnovers. CSP also had a 20-8 edge on fast break points, a 34-26 edge in points in the paint and 35-32 edge on the glass.
 
In his Golden Bear debut, Matt Johns did not disappoint as he led all players with 19 points to go along with seven boards and a pair of blocks while shooting 6-11 from the floor and 2-4 from deep. Jax Madson added 12 points on 5-10 shooting as well as five rebounds and two steals in his first game in navy and gold as the pair were two of five CSP players to reach double figures with all five starters scoring at least eight points.
 
Jacob Shields contributed 16 points on 6-11 shooting while Noah Kannegiesser had 11 points on 5-6 from the flood and Carlos Barela had 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in a full line.
 
Josh Dilling led the way for the Golden Eagles with 12 points off the bench while Ibu Jassey-Demba added nine points and eight boards.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves in an early hole as Minnesota-Crookston scored the first six points of the game and 11 of the first 14 over the first five minutes of action. The UMC lead reached nine at 16-7 at the 13:22 mark before a 10-4 run cut it to a one possession game just past the midway point of the half. The Golden Eagles had the momentum back in their favor as they took their largest lead of the night at 33-23 with 5:14 to go in the half before both teams went scoreless for nearly three minutes. It was all CSP from there on out as the Golden Bears closed the half on an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to two at 36-34.
 
That run carried over into the second half as they scored the first four points to take their first lead of the night. Minnesota-Crookston evened it back up at 38-38 and again at 41-41, but they would not lead again as a 29-5 run spanning seven minutes in favor of the Golden Bears put it out of reach at 70-46. The lead would not shrink below 19 the rest of the way and grew to as many as 27 before Concordia settled with an 80-56 season opening win.
 
The two teams will square off again tomorrow with tip-off set for 1:30 p.m. at Minnesota-Crookston.