ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (1-13, 0-10 NSIC) mounted a furious comeback in the second half, but they saw their efforts come up just short as Minnesota State (10-6, 9-5 NSIC) held on for a 93-89 win at Gangelhoff Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
Trailing by 22 with just 11:31 left to play, Concordia put together one of their best stretches of the season as their high energy play led to a 30-11 over the next 11 minutes to make it a one possession game in the final minute of play. The dramatic surge fell just shy, however, as the Mavericks iced the game with a pair of free throws to bring it to the final score.
 
It was a shootout in the season finale as both teams connected on 54.0% or better from the floor. The Golden Bears hit 54.8% (34-62) of their shots while MSU missed one more shot at 54.0% (34-63). Minnesota State finished a little bit better from deep as they hit 45.0% (9-20) compared to 36.7% (11-30) for CSP. The mark of 54.8% was a season-best for Concordia, eclipsing their mark of 49.2% in the season opener against UMC.
 
CSP had the edge on the break as they held a 10-3 advantage in fastbreak points while adding a 15-13 edge in points off turnovers as they forced 11 turnovers and committed just nine. The Mavericks outrebounded Concordia 38-27, including 13-6 on the offensive glass, to hold a 12-4 edge in second chance points.
 
Caden Hoffman put up his best game in a Golden Bear uniform as he led the squad with 21 points on 8-14 shooting and 5-10 from three to go along with four rebounds and four assists on the night. Carlos Barela added a solid stat line of his own on Senior Day as he scored 19 points with four boards and a pair of assists in a team-high 35 minutes.
 
Hoffman and Barela were two of five CSP players to reach double figures as Jax Madson and Matt Johns added 14 points apiece and George Scharlau chipped in 13 points off the bench. Madson hit 6-10 from the floor with four assists and three rebounds while Johns hit five of his seven shots. Scharlau hit 5-9 and 3-6 from three to go along with six rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists in a full line.
 
Devonte Thedford led the Mavericks with 24 points while Ryland Holt added 20 points and six rebounds in the win. Kelby Kramer contributed 17 points as well as eight points to aid the effort.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves in a deep hole in the opening minutes as the Mavericks scored the first eight points and 20 of the first 24 points to take a 20-4 lead at the 14:13 mark. Concordia responded with a 12-6 run to trim the deficit to 10 and later pulled to within nine at 31-22 with 7:18 left, but the Mavericks quickly regained an edge. A 10-2 run several minutes later ballooned the MSU lead to 20 at 48-28 before Concordia chipped it to 53-38 at the half.
 
After an even first few minutes of the second half, Barela and Madson combined for a 9-2 run, capped by a pair of threes for Madson, got the Golden Bears back to within a dozen at 61-49. The Mavericks responded with a 15-5 burst to take the lead to a game-high 22 point edge and remained out front by the same margin with 11:31 to go.
 
Concordia went bombs away from there as they hit five threes over the next seven and a half minutes as a part of a 22-5 run to cut it to five at 85-80 with 3:42 left. The two teams traded blows over the next few minutes as the MSU lead sat at five at 91-86 with 1:27 to go before a Matt Johns and-one with 32 seconds left trimmed it to two points. On the ensuing possession, Thedford calmly stepped up and knocked down a pair of free throws with 15 seconds remaining to seal it.