MANKATO, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-4, 0-1 NSIC) led by as many as nine in the first half before seeing #21 Minnesota State (6-0, 1-0 NSIC) pull away late in a 96-78 loss at Taylor Center on Tuesday night.
Antwan Kimmons, the NSIC's leading scorer, continued his dominant start to the 2022-23 season as he poured in a team-leading 34 points to move his season average to 27.4 points per game. Kimmons became the first Golden Bear since Bryndan Matthews in 2018 and fourth time in the DII era at CSP to surpass 30 points in a game in back-to-back games after scoring 35 on Friday night at Northern Michigan. He knocked down an efficient 11-14 from the floor, 3-5 from deep and 9-11 from the free throw line and added six assists, six steals and a pair of rebounds in 33 minutes on the night.
Jacob Everson joined Kimmons in double figures with 13 points on 5-10 shooting and 3-7 from beyond the arc while he pulled down five boards and dished out two assists.
Ian Sluice filled the box score with six points on 2-5 from three-point range to go along with five rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Roy Grigsby chipped in seven points on 3-5 shooting as well as three rebounds in the loss.
Malik Willingham, who ranks second in the league behind Kimmons on the scoring charts, led all players with 38 points on 12-22 from the field, 7-10 from beyond the arc and 7-8 from the charity stripe for the Mavericks. Tyrell Stuttley and Harrison Braudis added 11 points apiece in the win.
Concordia won the steals battle on the night as they tallied 11 steals compared to five for MSU while they turned that into a 16-15 advantage in points off turnovers. Both teams were nearly even in efficiency as Minnesota State connected on 50.8% (32-63) shooting while CSP hit 49.1% (27-55) both teams knocked down 12 three-pointers while the Mavericks had an edge at the free throw line at 20-25 (80.0%) compared to 12-18 (66.7%) for the Golden Bears.
Rebounding played a role in MSU's success as they held a 37-28 advantage on the glass, including a 9-4 advantage on the offensive glass, turning that into an 11-3 edge in second chance points.
The Mavericks opened the scoring with a quick 5-0 run, but the Golden Bears took over from there as they rattled off a massive 16-3 run over the next three and a half minutes to build a 16-8 lead of their own at the 15:00 mark of the first half. Concordia extended the lead to nine at 20-11 and again at 24-15 to take their largest lead of the night before the pendulum swung back the other way. MSU jumped back in front at 30-25 following a 15-1 run, but the game of runs continued as an 8-0 burst gave Concordia a 33-30 lead with 4:02 to go before the break. A few minutes later, another 8-0 run, this time in favor of the Mavericks, put the hosts back out in front at 40-37 after 20 minutes of play.
The two teams traded buckets early in the second half as the margin remained three at 47-44 with 15:10 to play, but the Golden Bears couldn't quite get over the hump. The lead fluctuated from six to nine points for a three-minute span from the 14:57 mark until the 11:57 mark before the Mavericks put it out of reach. Minnesota State scored 13 of 16 points to turn a 60-54 edge into a 73-57 lead just past the midway point of the half. The lead grew to as many as 19 as late at 86-67 with 4:55 to go before CSP cut it back to 11 at 89-78, but that would be all the closer they would get as Minnesota State closed out the 96-78 win.
Concordia returns to non-conference play on Sunday as they host Northland at 3 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.
