ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul (1-4, 0-1 NSIC) cut a 14-point halftime deficit in half, but were unable to complete the comeback as they fell 81-66 to Minnesota State (4-0, 1-0 NSIC) on Tuesday night in the NSIC opener at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears trimmed it to 55-48 with 9:14 to play in the contest with an extended 19-7 run, but that would be all the closer they would get as Minnesota State made it 15 straight wins in the series as CSP dropped to 6-31 all-time against the Mavericks.
 
Concordia once again utilized a strong bench unit as they finished the night with a 34-12 advantage in bench scoring in the loss. The freshman trio of Ian Sluice, Jacob Everson and Sunday John combined 26 of those 34 bench points as Sluice scored nine points on 3-4 from deep, Everson hit 3-4 from the floor for nine points, four assists and three boards and John hit 4-6 for eight points on the night.
 
Marcus Skeete paced the squad with 16 points on the night as he knocked down 7-11 from the floor and picked up three boards in his 24 minutes of action. Seven different Golden Bears had at least three rebounds while 11 had at least two in the loss.
 
As a team, CSP connected on 42.4% (25-59) from the floor and 42.3% from three-point range while Minnesota State hit 50.0% (33-66) overall. The Mavericks added a 54-26 edge in points in the paint as well as a 16-11 edge in points off turnovers in the win.
 
Devonte Thedford finished with a game-high 21 points while Brady Williams and Malik Willingham each chipped in 16 points in the win.
 
Skeete opened the scoring with an early three as the Golden bears led for the first six and a half minutes of play, but five straight points for MSU turned a 10-6 CSP lead into an 11-10 edge for the Mavericks. The two teams spent much of the middle stages of the half trading buckets as Concordia held a one point advantage at 22-21 with 6:14 to go, but Minnesota State closed out strong with a 19-4 run the rest of the way to take a 40-26 lead into the break.
 
The lead grew to as many as 19 at 48-29 just under three minutes into the second half, but the Golden Bears kept on battling as they cut 12 points off that deficit, aided by a pair of threes from Caden Hoffman and a pair of threes from Ian Sluice to bring it to 55-48 at the under-10 media timeout. Still within eight at 58-50 at the 7:55 mark, the Golden Bears saw MSU score 10 of the next 12 to put it out of reach at 68-52 just two and a half minutes later. The lead would not shrink below 13 down the stretch as the Mavericks stayed unbeaten with the 81-66 win.
 
Concordia will wrap up non-conference action after Thanksgiving as they travel to Denver to take on Regis on Friday and MSU Denver on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. on Saturday.