DULUTH, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-14, 0-9 NSIC) saw undefeated and fifth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (15-0, 8-0 NSIC) pull away for a 106-71 win on Saturday afternoon at Romano Gym.
 
The Bulldogs continued their dominant start to the season as they won their 15^th in a row overall while dropping CSP to 13-19 in the all-time series and 6-11 in Duluth.
 
While both teams shot an identical 40.0% from beyond the arc, with Concordia going 10-25 and UMD going 8-20, it was inside the arc that proved to be the difference. The Bulldogs outscored the Golden Bears 54-32 in the paint, hitting 60.0% (33-55) of their two-point attempts while Concordia shot 38.6% (17-44).
 
A trio of freshmen provided a bright spot for the Golden Bears as Elijah Ormiston cleared 20 points for the fifth time on the season and fourth time in the last seven games as he paced the squad with 21 points while pulling down a career-best 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. The South Carolina native added a pair of blocks in his 22 minutes of play.
 
Fellow freshmen Walker Johnson and Sunday John joined him in double figures. Johnson made the most of his opportunity in his second career appearance, scoring 13 points on 4-6 from beyond the arc for his first career points. John reached double digits for the third time on the season as he collected 10 points, three rebounds and two steals while hitting 4-8 from the floor and 2-4 from three-point range.
 
Concordia's top five leading scorers on the night were all freshmen as Jacob Everson followed with seven points and Ian Sluice had six points, three boards and two assists.
 
UMD's Austin Andrews led all players with 22 points on 10-15 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks while Drew Blair surpassed 1,000 career points with 15 points on the day.
 
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the first minute and a half of the game before pushing the lead to double figures at 16-5 three minutes later. The two teams went back and forth over the next few minutes as CSP trimmed it back to eight at 23-15 with 11:37 to play in the half, but UMD took control from there. Over the next nine and a half minutes, Minnesota Duluth compiled an 8-0 run, a 6-0 run and a 7-0 run as a part of a larger 25-11 burst to take their largest lead of the half at 48-26. The Golden Bears rebounded with back-to-back threes from Johnson followed by a Caden Hoffman layup for an 8-0 run of their own, but a Blair three before the buzzer gave the Bulldogs a 51-34 lead at the break.
 
Minnesota Duluth quickly pushed the lead back over 20 early in the second half as they scored the first five points and 11 of 15 to push it to 24 at 62-38. From there, the Bulldogs continued to add to their lead throughout the rest of the contest, eventually leading by as many as 38 before claiming a 106-71 win.
 
CSP returns to the court on Monday night as they travel to St. Cloud State for a non-conference contest. The two schools were originally scheduled to meet on Friday night in league play, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.