ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-1, 0-0 NSIC) opens their conference and home slate this weekend as they host Wayne State (0-2, 0-0 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center on Friday and Saturday.

ATTENDANCE POLICY
(home) Due to state, local and campus restrictions in place to combat the spread of COVID-19, Concordia will not be allowing spectators to watch this weekend's games in person. Please continue to check the game previews prior to each home game for updated attendance policy throughout the season. As restrictions change, CSP athletics will adapt. NSIC Member Attendance Policies
 
WATCH ONLINE - NSIC NETWORK
Powered by the NSIC Network, all Northern Sun home and away basketball games will be broadcast online, free of charge. Visit www.nsicnetwork.com/cspbears to watch the Golden Bears. Away games will feature production and commentary by the host institution, while home games are broadcast by Keemotion technology with the play-by-play call of Dan Flanagan, voice of the Golden Bears for over a decade. Flanagan is a St. Paul native who professionally trained in broadcasting at Fordham University in New York where he was the voice of the basketball and football teams, among other sports. NSIC Network Announcement & FAQ
 
WATCH ON YOUR TV
The NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology, is available to download on your favorite OTT providers like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Simply search for "NSIC" or "NSIC Network" and download the app for a full listing of Northern Sun action on your TV.  NSIC Network Announcement & FAQ
 
WATCH ON THE GO
Download the NSIC Network app in the Google Play Store or the App Store on your Apple device to watch on your smartphone, a new feature from BlueFrame Technology.  NSIC Network Announcement & FAQ
 
FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Not able to watch or keep an eye on live stats? Check in on social media by following our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. Each platform will have different levels of engagement. Twitter will offer scoring updates, Instagram will feature live look-ins and engaging content and Facebook is a great place to get links to previews, recaps and more. Simply search for CSP Bears on any of the platforms, and remember to #BeGolden!

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears raced back from a halftime deficit to claim an 80-56 win over Minnesota Crookston on Saturday before seeing their comeback fall short on Sunday against the Golden Eagles in an 84-80 loss in overtime.

Trailing 33-23 with under three minutes to go in the first half on Saturday, 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.
 
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.
 
On Sunday, CSP erased an 11 point deficit after the break to force an extra session and took their first lead of the day in overtime, but they were unable to hang on as the Golden Eagles closed it out down the stretch.

With several starters facing foul trouble for the Golden Bears, freshman Marcus Skeete stepped up in a big way off the bench as he paced all players with 22 points on an efficient 10-13 shooting to go along with seven boards over 32 minutes. Fellow freshman Jax Madson reached double figures for the second day in a row with 13 points, four rebounds and a pair of steals.

WSC SERIES HISTORY
Heading into the weekend in the all-time series between Concordia and Wayne State, WSC holds a slight edge as they have claimed 24 wins while CSP has picked up 19 in the 43 previous meetings. Since a stretch from 2006-2011 that saw Concordia win nine of 10 meetings, the Wildcats have turned the momentum in their favor with 14 wins in the last 19 and seven of eight. Concordia has found much more success on their home court as they have gone 12-10 in St. Paul and 7-14 in Wayne in the series.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
Back on Feb. 14, 2020, the Golden Bears picked up a huge road win as they knocked off Wayne State by a score of 93-89 in overtime at Rice Auditorium.

It was a back and forth contest from start to finish as neither team had a lead larger than two possessions at any point in the game.
 
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. The Golden Bears took care of business at the charity stripe in overtime as they hit 10-12 (83.3%) to seal the win. CSP also tallied a 40-30 edge in points in the paint.
 
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.

Higgins was one of five Golden Bears to reach double figures in scoring as Cody Carlson wasn't far behind with 18 points on 8-12 shooting. Jordan Coblin added 17 points and four boards while Max Keefe had 14 points and five rebounds and Jacob Shields chipped in 11 points and four rebounds.

Al'Tavius Jackson and Nick Ferrarini matched each other for the team lead for WSC with 22 points while Jordan Janssen added a double-double with 16 points and 13 boards in the loss.

ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Wayne State, picked to finish eighth in the NSIC South in the preseason poll, is coming off a season in which they compiled a 10-22 record overall and a 7-15 record in league play as they finished in a tie with the Golden Bears for sixth in the NSIC South.

Last weekend, the Wildcats opened the season with a tough pair of home games against #8 Northern State as they fell in a close contest by a score of 66-62 on Saturday before dropping Sunday's game 64-51. WSC held a double-digit lead over the Wolves at 53-43 with 12:13 remaining in the season opener, but saw the preseason top pick in the NSIC North take the lead for good with an Andrew Kallman three-pointer with 22 seconds to play. The Wildcats had a chance to tie and force overtime, but a miss from deep and a free throw for NSU brought it to a final score of 66-62.

Junior Jordan Janssen, a 2019-20 All-NSIC Second Team pick, has been the go-to guy for the Wildcats again this season as he leads the team with 14.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 29.5 minutes of action. Janssen currently ranks third in the NSIC in rebounding. Janssen is joined in double figures with fellow junior Nate Mohr, who is averaging 10.5 points to go along with a pair of assists and a pair of steals through two games. Cody McCullough has been active on the glass so far as he's put up 3.5 points and 7.0 boards off the bench.

NSIC LEADERS
Over the season's opening weekend, the Golden Bears thrived in several statistical areas as they rank in the top five in the NSIC in seven different categories. CSP picked up 9.5 steals for game, good for second, while their +2.5 turnover margin also ranked fifth. Concordia also registered in at third in scoring margin (+10.0) and rebounding (38.0), fourth in rebounding margin (3.0) and fifth in scoring (80.0) and free throw percentage (78.1%).
 
Individually, a balanced effort had four different Golden Bears ranking in the top 10 in different statistical categories. Marcus Skeete's incredible 71.4% from the floor is good for third while Matt Johns sits in fifth with 2.0 blocks per game.
 
Jax Madson ranks sixth with 2.0 steals per game while Carlos Barela's 3.5 assists per game puts him in seventh.