ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-0) opened the 2021-22 season with a 73-70 win over Newman (0-1) in the DoubleTree by Hilton Roseville Minneapolis Classic at Gangelhoff Center on Friday night.
For the second consecutive season under head coach
Matt Fletcher, the Golden Bears kicked off the season with a victory. CSP got off to a strong start and didn't look back as they led for 36:56 of the 40 minutes of action on the night.
Concordia led in nearly every statistical category as they held a 15-4 edge in fast break points, a 44-32 edge in points in the paint, a 20-11 edge in points off turnovers, a 30-24 edge in bench scoring and a 14-10 edge in second chance points while also claiming a 39-37 edge on the glass. The Golden Bears also connected on 51.9% (14-27) after the break to finish at 43.9% (25-57) while the Jets shot 43.3% (26-60) in the loss.
Elijah Ormiston caught put together a dominant second half in his collegiate debut as he scored 20 of his game-high 22 points after the break. The freshman connected on 8-12 from the floor and pulled down seven boards in just 18 minutes of action in the win.
Marcus Skeete joined him in double figures off the bench as he tallied 11 points on 5-8 shooting to go along with six boards.
Matt Johns chipped in nine points, three blocks and two rebounds while drawing eight fouls and
Sunday John knocked down 3-5 from the floor to finish with eight points and three assists.
David Javorksy paced Newman with 15 points on 4-8 from the floor and 6-7 from the free throw line to lead the way in the loss.
Concordia set the tone from the opening tip as they used an early 12-0 run to build a 14-3 lead six and a half minutes into play. Newman responded with the next five points to make it a two-possession game, but CSP grabbed 11 of the next 16 points to push it back to double figures at 25-13 with 6:38 to go in the opening half. The lead remained in double figures at 33-23 with just under a minute and a half left in the half before back-to-back buckets from the Jets followed by a
Matt Johns free throw brought it to the halftime score of 34-27.
An early push for Newman to start the second half closed the gap to four at 36-32, but Ormiston took over from there with eight points in the first 2:07 of the half and nine in the first 4:32 to give the Golden Bears their biggest lead of the night at 45-32. With the lead still at 13 at 49-36 with 13:27 left on the clock, Newman started to chip away. A 6-0 run nearly cut the lead in half before they trimmed it to five at 55-50 with 8:26 to go. The Jets closed the gap all the way down to one at 60-59 just over two minutes later, but Ormiston knocked down a free throw and a layup to make it a two-possession lead. NU was back within a point at 64-63, but the Golden Bears locked down from there as they would not relinquish the lead the rest of the way. Arne Morris had a shot to take the lead with 3:16 left on the clock, but that would be their only chance as Concordia iced it late to claim a 73-70 season-opening win.
The Golden Bears will look to make it a 2-0 weekend tomorrow as they take on Rogers State at 2 p.m.
