SEWARD, Neb. – In their final game before the winter break, Concordia-St. Paul's men's basketball team (3-10) fell to Lincoln University (Mo.) (6-2) on Monday night, 79-64 in a non-conference matchup between the two NCAA Central Region Division II programs.

The game was played on the Concordia University-Nebraska campus at Friedrich Arena, named in honor of Concordia University, St. Paul President Rev. Dr. Brian Friedrich and his wife, Laurie in 2020. President Friedrich served as the President of Concordia-Nebraska from 2004 to 2019 before returning to CSP.

The Blue Tigers shot well throughout the game, going 32-for-63 (50.8%) from the floor and 45.5% (5-11) from three-point range to knock off the Golden Bears in the first meeting between the two schools.

Concordia was led by John Grigsby who posted a career-high 18 points on 7-of-11 (63.6%) shooting from the field and was 3-of-6 from behind the arc. The sophomore forward also had a career-best three blocks and pulled down two rebounds.

Sunday John and Marcus Skeete each scored nine points in the contest with Skeete adding four rebounds and two steals to the scoring. They combined to score their 18 points on just 10 shots (6-10) in efficient fashion.

Sean Mathieu scored eight points with four rebounds and two assists. Emad Elniel had a team-best six rebounds and Jacob Everson rounded out the top five Concordia scorers with six points, two rebounds, a block and a steal.

Kevin Kone was dominant under the basket for the Blue Tigers, getting a double-double, scoring a game-high 21 points with 11 rebounds. Artese Stapleton wasn't far behind Kone with 19 points on 8-15 shooting, while pulling down five boards and getting three assists.

The Golden Bears stayed close for the beginning of the first half, with a Skeete three-point play cutting LU's lead to 19-15 with 12:02 left in the half. Lincoln proceeded to go on an 18-4 run to close the half and held CSP scoreless for nearly 10 minutes with John Grigsby scoring the final four points of the half to make it 37-19. Concordia struggled shooting and holding on to the ball in the first half, shooting 8-for-29 (32%) from the field including 1-for-11 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 13 times.

The Blue Tigers continued to build their lead in the second half, pushing it to as many as 30 points (72-42) with 7:20 left in the game. Concordia made a valiant effort to come back down the stretch, putting together a 20-4 run, sparked by a trio of 3-pointers by John Grigsby as CSP shot 8-9 during an extended spurt from the seven to three-minute mark, trimming the margin to as close as 14 points.

Another basket in the paint by the younger Grigsby would cap off the scoring for the Golden Bears as the Lincoln Blue Tigers took the victory 79-64. The CSP men were much better in the second half, shooting 15-of-27 (55.6%) from the field, 5-of-11 from 3-point range and outscored LU 45-42.

The road-weary Golden Bears, who played three road games in three states in four days, will be back in action on New Year's Eve to take on #14 Minnesota State. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. in St. Paul at Gangelhoff Center.