ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-12, 0-9 NSIC) dropped the first contest of the weekend to Minnesota State (9-6, 8-5 NSIC) by a score of 86-58 on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Mavericks jumped out to an early lead and didn't look back as they held the Golden Bears to 35.5% (22-62) from the field and 16.7% (3-18) from deep to cruise to a comfortable win. On the other end, Minnesota State knocked down 47.1% (33-70) from the field and 47.6% (10-21) from beyond the arc in the victory.
MSU also added a 50-30 edge in the rebounding column as well as a 12-4 edge on the offensive glass, resulting in a 10-9 advantage in second chance points. They added a 15-3 advantage in fastbreak points and a 24-15 advantage in bench scoring to aid the effort.
Carlos Barela paced the Golden Bears with 17 points on 7-16 shooting while
George Scharlau added 10 points on 3-6 from the field and 2-4 from three-point range.
Marcus Skeete chipped in eight points to go along with a pair of assists and rebounds while
Matt Johns added seven points, three boards and two blocks in the loss.
Quincy Anderson led the way for the Mavericks with 23 points and 10 boards on an efficient 8-11 from the field while Devonte Thedford contributed 21 points on 8-12 shooting.
Minnesota State set the tone from the opening tip as they ran out to a 7-0 lead before pushing it out to a dozen at 21-9 just over seven minutes into the game. Concordia chipped away with the next five points and eight of 10 to pull within a pair of possessions, but another run, this time a 12-2 burst extended it to 35-19 with 7:13 to go in the half. The lead remained in that vicinity throughout the rest of the half as the Mavericks took a 44-28 lead into the break.
After an early bucket for MSU to start the second half, Barela scored three straight baskets to close the gap to a dozen, but the Mavericks once again had an answer. With the score at 48-36 with 17:30 left, Minnesota State scored 14 of the next 19 to put it out of reach. The Golden Bears had it down to 17 several times in the final five minutes before the Mavericks padded their advantage down the stretch to bring it to an 86-58 final.
The Golden Bears and the Mavericks will meet again tomorrow at 2 p.m. as CSP will honor their four seniors on Senior Day.
