CLAREMORE, Okla. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (0-1) dropped a high-scoring season opener to Newman (1-0) by a score of 97-85 in the Holiday Inn Express Regional Challenge on Friday afternoon.
For the first time in three seasons under head coach
Matt Fletcher, the Golden Bears fell short in the season opener as the loss dropped CSP to 2-1 in their last three opening contests.
After knocking down 37.9% (11-29) from the floor before the break, CSP improved to 48.3% (14-29) in the final 20 minutes as their comeback bid came up short. The Golden Bears got to the free throw line 19 times in the second half and 30 times for the game as they finished at 80.0% (24-30) on the night.
Concordia's bench provided a spark as they held a 33-20 edge in bench scoring over the Newman reserves. Six different CSP players scored off the bench, led by nine points on three three-pointers from both
Ian Sluice and
John Grigsby.
Marcus Skeete and
Antwan Kimmons combined for 41 of the 52 points for the starting unit as Skeete needed just nine shots to score 24 points while Kimmons had 17. Skeete hit 6-9 from the floor and 11-15 from the free throw line while pulling down eight rebounds and Kimmons connected on 3-8 shooting and 10-11 from the charity stripe while dishing out four assists and three boards.
Stevie Strong carried the load for the Jets as he scored a game-high 40 points on 11-18 from the field, 5-11 from deep and 13-14 from the line.
After the two teams split the first eight points of the night, Newman rattled off a 17-5 run to build a 21-9 edge at the 12:40 mark of the opening half. CSP trimmed it back to seven with a
John Grigsby three and a
Sean Mathieu layup, but the Jets went right back on the attack with eight straight points to extend it to 29-14 with 7:34 to go. The Golden Bears once again clawed their way back into it as they scored 12 of the next 14 points to trim the deficit to 31-26 just three minutes later. Concordia kept it a two-possession game heading to the break as they trailed 41-35 at the half.
A Skeete bucket in the opening minute of the second half closed the gap back down to four for the first time since the early minutes of the first half, but that would be all the closer they would get as Newman had it back out to double figures at 59-46 with 14 minutes to play. That lead grew to as many as 22 at 75-53 just past the midway point of the half before a late push for the Golden Bears brought it back to a final margin of 12 at 97-85.
CSP will look to get into the win column tomorrow afternoon as they take on Rogers State at 2 p.m.
