WINONA, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (1-11, 0-8 NSIC) dropped their final road contest of the season by a score of 77-58 at Winona State (6-5, 4-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
The second game of the weekend followed a very similar script as the Golden Bears closed the gap to four early in the second half before the Warriors ballooned their lead down the stretch to claim the sweep. Winona State grabbed their 50
th win in the all-time series as CSP dropped to 7-50 overall and 5-26 in Winona.
Sophomore
George Scharlau was nearly perfect from the field as the big man hit six of his seven shots for a career-high 17 points off the bench. Scharlau knocked down 2-3 from deep and 3-4 from the free throw line while chipping in six rebounds and two assists.
Marcus Skeete reached double figures for the fifth time in six games as he finished with 10 points while
Matt Johns hit 4-5 from the field to pick up eight points.
Jax Madson added six points and six boards while
Caden Hoffman had five rebounds and five assists.
For the Warriors, Kevion Taylor was once again the main man as he led all scorers with 22 points on 8-14 shooting and 3-5 from three-point range. Owen King contributed 16 points and Luke Martens pulled down 10 rebounds in the win.
While the Golden Bears utilized a 23-14 edge in bench scoring as well as a 34-26 edge in points in the paint, turnovers proved to be their undoing as Winona State turned 18 CSP turnovers into 22 points while turning it over just eight times resulting in seven points for the Golden Bears.
Trailing 9-4 in the early going, CSP took the lead at 12-11 just over seven minutes in with seven of the next nine points. That proved to be the only lead of the afternoon for the Golden Bears as Winona State regained control with an 8-2 run. Concordia cut it back to a one possession game at 24-21, but another surge pushed it back to eight before the Warriors took a 33-26 edge into the locker room.
The two teams traded buckets early on the second half before a Scharlau three and a Skeete layup trimmed it to 40-36 with 15:51 to go, but Winona State stemmed the tide to maintain control. Their lead reached double figures with a 9-2 run and gradually grew down the stretch as the Warriors eventually finished out the 77-58 victory.
