ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (2-7, 0-4 NSIC) battled back to take a lead early in the second half but they were unable to hang on in another tightly contested loss as they fell to Wayne State (8-2, 3-1 NSIC) 77-73 on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears saw their fifth game decided by four points or less on the season as CSP fell to 19-29 in the all-time series with the Wildcats.
 
Concordia proved to be the more efficient of the two teams on the night as they connected on 48.3% (29-60) from the floor while holding WSC to 43.9% (25-57). The Golden Bears added a 40-30 edge in points in the paint while their bench outscored Wayne State's bench 21-7 in the contest. The decisive edge for the Wildcats came at the free throw line as they hit 19-23 (82.6%) compared to 6-11 (54.5%) for CSP. The visitors added a 24-12 advantage in points off turnovers in the win.
 
Antwan Kimmons continued his high scoring ways as he finished with a game-best 26 points on 11-23 shooting to go along with five assists and four boards. Kimmons cleared 25 points for the fifth time on the season as he bumped his average to 22.8 points per game.
 
Marcus Skeete joined Kimmons in double figures with 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds while Caden Hoffman knocked down 3-4 from deep to finish with nine points. Cal Greene hit 3-4 off the bench to collect seven points while Sunday John was 2-2 shooting and 1-1 from three-point range to chip in six points.
 
Wayne State's Jordan Janssen filled the box score with 20 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks while Nate Mohr fell a point shy with 19 in the win.
 
It was the Wildcats that built an early lead on the night as they scored eight of the game's first 10 points before maintaining a two to three possession lead for much of the rest of the half. The lead grew to as many as eight as late at the 24-16 mark with 9:08 to go before the break before the Golden Bears started to battle back. Over the next six and a half minutes, Concordia strung together a 9-4 run to trim it to three at 28-25 before further closing the gap to one before the break. Kimmons rattled off seven consecutive CSP points to pull within a point at 31-30 before a late Ian Sluice layup made it 33-32 in favor of Wayne State at the half.
 
Concordia was back on the attack to open the second half as Jared Perry gave the hosts their first lead of the night ten seconds after the break at 34-33. The Wildcats turned it around with a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 40-34, but CSP quickly responded with a 10-2 burst to build their largest lead of the night at 44-42. The lead went back and fourth from there as the first seven minutes of the second half featured six lead changes. Concordia's last lead came at the 13:33 mark as Hoffman buried a three to put the Golden Bears in front 47-45 before a 7-0 WSC run gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 52-47.
 
Wayne State extended their lead to nine at several points in the final few minutes of the game, including as late as 74-65 with 1:38 to go, but the Golden Bears would not go away. A Hoffman three followed by a pair of Kimmons free throws and another three from Greene in a span of just 38 seconds closed the gap all the way down to two at 75-73, but a pair of Justin Eagins free throws iced the game.
 
Concordia will look to get back into the win column tomorrow afternoon as they host Augustana at Gangelhoff Center at 3:30 p.m.