MARSHALL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-8, 1-5 NSIC) led for 35:44 on the night before a late push for Southwest Minnesota State (6-4, 3-3 NSIC) resulted in a tough 67-63 loss on Friday night for the Golden Bears.
 
CSP did not trail the entire night until a Cliff McCray layup with 34 seconds left followed by a pair of free throws before the horn gave the Mustangs their first and only lead of the game. The loss drops the Golden Bears to 14-32 in the all-time series with SMSU and 5-19 in Marshall as they nearly made it road wins in back-to-back seasons.
 
It was a tale of two halves offensively for the Golden bears as they knocked down an efficient 55.6% (15-27) in the first 20 minutes before hitting 30.8% (8-26) in the second half. On the other side, Southwest Minnesota State was nearly even in both halves as they hit 52.0% (13-25) before the break and 52.2% (12-23) after.
 
Concordia won the battle on the glass as they had a 31-23 edge in rebounding, including an 8-1 edge on the offensive glass, to finish with a 9-0 advantage in second chance points. CSP added a 10-4 advantage in fastbreak points in the loss.
 
The duo of Antwan Kimmons and Marcus Skeete combined for 31 of the team's 63 points as Kimmons scored 17 points on 6-11 shooting and 4-5 from the free throw line while Skeete finished with 14 points on 5-8 from the floor and 2-4 from deep. Kimmons added four assists and a pair of rebounds while Skeetw chipped in six boards, three assists and two blocks.
 
Jacob Everson and Caden Hoffman just missed joining them in double figures with nine and eight points, respectively, while Everson contributed five rebounds and two steals and Hoffman chipped in three rebounds. Jared Perry added six points and a game-high nine boards of the bench.
 
Dunwa Omot carried the load for the Mustangs as he led all players with 24 points while Anthony Costello put up 11 points off the bench in the win.
 
The Golden Bears got off to a fast start with back-to-back threes from Skeete and Everson before maintaining a lead for virtually the entire night. The Mustangs managed to tie it up at 12-12 at the midway point of the half with two straight buckets of their own, but CSP quickly regained control with an 8-2 run to build a 20-14 lead at the 8:10 mark of the opening half. The lead grew to as many as seven before the break, including at the final margin of 36-29 as Kimmons banked home a three before the buzzer to cap a 6-2 run.
 
Concordia continued to add to their lead early in the second half as Hoffman buried a quick three to push it to double figures before the edge reached 11 at 44-33 with 15:41 to go following layups from Hoffman and Everson. Southwest Minnesota State chipped away with nine of the next 11 points to trim it to four at 46-42, but the Golden Bears quickly responded with eight points in a row to extend it to a dozen with 10 minutes to play.
 
 The Mustangs would not go away, however, as they rattled off a timely 16-4 run to erase the CSP lead and tie the score at 58-58. Concordia regained the lead at 61-58 and again at 63-61, but SMSU locked down the Golden Bears over the final 2:01 as they finished on a 6-0 run to claim a 67-63 win. CSP had a chance to regain the lead with an off-balanced attempt from beyond the arc with two seconds left, but the Mustangs secured the rebound and knocked down a pair at the line to ice the game.
 
CSP resumes play tomorrow night as they travel to Sioux Falls for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.