ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-11, 1-7 NSIC) was in comeback mode for much of the afternoon as they came up just short in a 79-74 loss to Minnesota State (11-3, 5-3 NSIC) on New Year's Eve at Gangelhoff Center.
 
After the Mavericks ran out to a 27-6 lead six and a half minutes into the contest, the Golden Bears outscored MSU 70-52 over the final 33:39 as they nearly erased the 21-point deficit. Minnesota State made it 18 wins in a row in the series as CSP fell to 6-34 in 40 matchups between the two schools.
 
It was a career night for Emad Elniel as he led all players with 29 points and 11 boards in 29:07 off the bench. The sophomore flew past his previous career-bests of nine points and five rebounds set back on Dec. 10 in the win over Augustana as he knocked down 9-17 from the floor and a red-hot 7-10 from beyond the arc on the night. His seven made threes were tied for fifth in DII-era history at CSP and the most since Hayden Baughman hit seven back on Nov. 23, 2018. Antwan Kimmons added a full stat line of his own with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds while hitting 6-14 from the floor and 9-12 from the free throw line.
 
While the Elniel-Kimmons duo combined for 51 of the team's 74 points, Marcus Skeete chipped in nine first half points while Sunday John and Caden Hoffman chipped in five apiece. John added five boards and a pair of assists on the night.
 
Trevor Moore paced Minnesota State with 23 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists while Malik Willingham hit 5-9 from beyond the arc to finish with 17 points in the win.
 
Concordia turned things around efficiency-wise after the break as they connected on 46.2% (12-26) from the field, including a fiery 72.7% (8-11) from deep, to finish the night at 39.3% (24-61) and 41.7% (10-24), respectively. On the other side, MSU hit 49.2% (31-63) for the game and 38.5% (10-26) from three-point range.
 
CSP got out on the break throughout the night as they held a 22-10 edge in fast break points while they added a 36-8 advantage in bench scoring.
 
The Mavericks could not have gotten off to a much better start as they hit 10 of their first 13 shots and six of their first nine from three-point range while CSP opened with 3-12 shooting and 0-5 from deep to fall behind 27-6 in the early minutes of the contest. The lead remained at 18 at the 6:31 mark at 37-19 before the Golden Bears started to turn it around. Concordia closed out the half on an 11-4 run to trim it to 41-30 at the break.
 
Back-to-back buckets for MSU to open the second half pushed it back to 15, but the Golden Bears were right back on the attack from there as they responded with 10 points in a row to make it a two-possession game at 45-40 with 16:21 to go. The Minnesota State lead was back in double figures at 52-42 before reaching as many as 14 at 74-60 with 2:11 to play, but CSP would not go away. Concordia knocked down their next four shots from the floor, including a pair of Elniel threes and another from Kimmons, to rattle off an 11-1 run to trim it to four at 75-71 with 23 seconds to go. That would be all the closer they would get as the Mavericks scored the next four points before another Elniel three brought it to the final score to 79-74.
 
The Golden Bears are back at Gangelhoff Center next weekend as they host #21 Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State.