ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-15) dropped a fast paced contest by a score of 93-80 at St. Cloud State (8-6) in non-conference play on Monday night.
The Golden Bears cleared 80 points for the second time in three games, but they couldn't quite keep pace with the Huskies as they fell to 7-24 in the all-time series with SCSU.
Elijah Ormiston continued his impressive scoring surge with a career-high 29 points on 14-20 from the floor, finishing a pair of rebounds shy of a double-double with eight. The true freshman cleared 20 points for the fifth time in eight games as he has averaged 20.8 points per game during that span.
He was not the only freshman to fill the stat sheet as
Marcus Skeete narrowly missed a double-double with 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists while
Reid Patterson had 14 points and
Ian Sluice had 13. Skeete connected on 6-12 from the floor while Patterson hit 4-10 from deep and Sluice hit 3-7 from beyond the arc.
Concordia took advantage of their 11 offensive rebounds on the night, turning them into 16 points, while SCSU claimed just four second chance points. CSP also won the battle in the paint with a 40-38 edge down low while their bench outscored the Huskies' reserves 16-9.
Anthony Roberts led the way for St. Cloud State with 24 points, 13 rebounds and five assists while all five starters scored at least a dozen points on the night.
The two teams lit up the scoreboard in the opening 20 minutes as they combined for 93 points in the first half. Following a 9-2 run to start the game for the Huskies, the Golden Bears responded with 11 of the next 17 points to trim it to a pair at 15-13 just over four minutes into play. The margin remained at two at 20-18 just one minute later, but St. Cloud State took control with a 15-0 to match their largest lead of the half at 35-18. A few minutes later, CSP strung together a 12-0 run of their own to trim a 40-23 deficit down to a two-possession game at 40-35. Concordia managed to cut another point off that deficit at 44-40 before a pair of late SCSU threes sandwiched around a Madson three brought it to 50-43 at the break.
SCSU regained a double digit advantage early in the second half, pushing it back to a dozen at 68-56 and again at 70-58 with 12:43 to play, but the Golden Bears showed resilience as they clawed their way back in it. Over the next seven minutes, CSP outscored the Huskies 16-7 to make it a one possession game at 77-74 with 5:55 left on the clock. St. Cloud State stemmed the tide, however, as they scored the next 10 in a row to regain some breathing room. The lead would not shrink below a dozen the rest of the night as Concordia fell 93-80.
Concordia is set for their first home contests in nearly a month as they host Minnesota Crookston on Friday and Bemidji State on Saturday.
