ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-9, 0-6 NSIC) saw Upper Iowa (7-5, 5-3 NSIC) pull away as the Peacocks claimed a 99-74 win on Saturday afternoon at Gangelhoff Center.
UIU completed the sweep of the weekend as CSP fell to 15-20 overall and 6-11 on their home court against the Peacocks. Trailing by just three with six minutes to play in the first half, Upper Iowa finished the contest on 66-44 run the rest of the way to cruise to victory.
Matt Johns set the Division II-era school record with six blocked shots on the afternoon as the Golden Bears fell one shy of the team record with 12.
That was not enough to overcome advantages on the glass and in transition for the Peacocks. UIU held a 46-32 rebounding edge, including an 18-8 edge on the glass, while also holding a 21-4 advantage on the fast break. Upper Iowa also claimed a 19-10 edge in points off turnovers.
Upper Iowa took advantage of their extra shot attempts as both teams finished nearly identical from the floor with UIU at 47.4% (37-78) and CSP at 47.1% (32-68). The Peacocks had an edge from deep, however, as they hit 47.4% (9-19) compared to 23.8% (5-21) for the Golden Bears.
The freshmen duo of
Jax Madson and
Marcus Skeete paced the squad with efficient efforts as Madson scored 14 points on 6-8 shooting and 2-3 from three-point range while Skeete scored 13 on 6-9 shooting. Skeete made it three consecutive double-doubles as he matched his career high with 13 boards.
Carlos Barela joined the pair in double figures with 10 points and a team-best four assists.
Lucas Duax did a little bit of everything for Upper Iowa as he scored a game-high 22 points while grabbing 13 rebounds and four assists while Jareese Williams chipped in 21 points and eight boards in the win.
Upper Iowa set the tone early by scoring the first five points of the game as a part of a 9-2 run to open play. The lead reached nine at 20-11 before a 9-0 run featuring five straight points from
Noah Kannegiesser tied the score at 20-20 with 11:21 left in the half. The Peacocks maintained a slim lead over the next five minutes as the score sat at 33-30 with 6:07 left before the break, but an 18-6 run made it 51-36 in favor of UIU after 20 minutes of play.
Back-to-back threes from Madson and Skeete had the deficit down to 11 early in the second half, but that would be all the closer they could get. The lead reached 29 in the final minute of play before CSP cut it back to 99-74 at the final horn.
Concordia hits the road next weekend as they travel to Winona State. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
