ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (1-3, 0-2 NSIC) saw the Wayne State Wildcats (2-2, 2-0 NSIC) pull away in the second half as they dropped the second game of the weekend by a score of 82-60 on Saturday afternoon.
The Wildcats continued to find success in the all-time series as they improved to 9-1 in the last 10 meetings and 26-19 overall against CSP.
The shots just weren't falling for the Golden Bears as they finished the game shooting 36.1% (22-61) from the floor and 22.2% (6-27) from beyond the arc. On the other side, WSC connected on 48.4% (31-64) of their shots and 50.0% (6-12) of their attempts from three-point range.
The Golden Bears did manage a 10-8 edge in second chance points due to a 9-8 advantage on the offensive glass, but it wasn't enough to make the difference as WSC also held a 44-30 edge in the paint and an 18-9 edge in points off of turnovers.
Three of Concordia's five starters reached double figures in scoring as
Carlos Barela and
Jax Madson both finished with 12 points and
Jacob Shields added 10. Barela added a team-best eight rebounds while Shields added seven.
Marcus Skeete added seven points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks off the bench.
Jordan Janssen led all players with 18 points and nine boards for Wayne State while Jay Saunders added 14 points, six boards and four assists in the win.
The Golden Bears found themselves in an early hole as WSC used a 6-0 run to take an 8-2 lead before extending that advantage to double digits at 17-6 just over five minutes into the game. The Wildcats remained comfortably out front with at least a three possession lead until the 8:08 mark at 32-20, but a big CSP surge gave Concordia their lone lead of the day. Over the next three minutes, the Golden Bears exploded for a massive 13-0 run to pull ahead 33-32, but back-to-back buckets for the Wildcats gave WSC the lead right back. The differential remained at three heading to the break as Wayne State led 40-37 after 20 minutes of play.
An extended 15-6 run for Wayne State to start the second half had their advantage back to double figures at 55-43. Another 12-2 run a few minutes later put it out of reach as WSC took a 23 point lead at 75-52 before finishing it out with an 82-60 win.
Concordia will look to get back in the win column next weekend as they travel to #14 Augustana on Friday and Saturday.
