MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team opened up the season with an 80-67 exhibition loss to Minnesota at Williams Arena on Monday night.
The Golden Bears gave the Golden Gophers all they could handle on their home court as they outscored the hosts 39-36 after the break and had the deficit within nine in the final few minutes of play.
Concordia held their own down low as they finished with a 42-41 advantage on the glass while also tallying an 11-5 edge in fast break points, a 21-10 edge in bench scoring and an 11-10 edge in second chance points on the night.
It was a balanced effort offensively for CSP as four different players registered at least 13 points in the game.
Caden Hoffman led the team with 14 points on 4-6 from deep while also pulling down three rebounds and dishing out three assists, and
Jack Stensgard collected a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five steals on 5-7 from the floor.
Matt Johns and
Elijah Ormiston matched Stensgard with 13 points apiece while Johns grabbed eight boards and Ormiston collected four.
George Scharlau chipped in eight points and three rebounds and
Jax Madson added six points and three rebounds.
Jamison Battle and Payton Willis combined for 47 of the Gophers' 80 points as Battle led all players with 24 points while Willis finished with 23.
The Golden Gophers jumped out to an early 10-2 lead over the first three minutes of the game, but Concordia stemmed the tide from there as the two teams traded baskets over the next eight minutes of play. With the margin at nine at 22-13 with 9:07 to go in the half, Minnesota strung together an 8-0 run to take their biggest lead of the half at 30-13. Back-to-back threes from Scharlau and Johns a few possessions later trimmed the margin to 11 at 32-21 with 4:18 to go before the U of M pushed it back to 16 at the break at 44-28.
CSP opened the second half strong with a quick layup and a three from Stensgard to trim the gap to 11 at 44-33 less than a minute into the half. The Golden Bears weren't quite able to bring it to single digits over the next few minutes as the margin remained 11 at 51-40 before a 12-3 run extended it back to 19 at 62-43 for the Gophers with 12:19 to play.
That proved to be the largest lead of the night as Concordia responded with a 9-0 run, highlighted by a
Matt Johns slam on a baseline drive, to cut it to 10 at 62-52 with 8:26 left on the clock. The Golden Bears eventually got it back to single digits in the final few minutes as Hoffman knocked down a deep three and Ormiston fought his way to a putback layup to make it 73-64 with 2:19 to go, but that would be all the closer they would get as the U of M closed out a 80-67 victory.
The Golden Bears continue exhibition play on Thursday night as they travel to Weber State.
