ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-25, 2-19 NSIC) closed out the season with a high-scoring contest as they fell to #15 Upper Iowa (24-4, 18-4 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
Senior guard Jack Stensgard celebrated Senior Night in style as he scored a career-best 30 points on 10-20 shooting and 5-10 from beyond the arc. The Inver Grove Heights native tacked on five steals, four assists and three rebounds in 33 minutes of action. Stensgard became the third different Golden Bear to score 30 in a game this season as Marcus Skeete scored 33 against Regis on Nov. 26 and Elijah Ormiston scored 30 also against the Peacocks back on Feb. 19.
 
Offense was the story in the season finale as the Golden Bears cleared 50.0% shooting for the fourth time in the final 11 games of the year, putting up their second highest total at 54.1% (33-61), while UIU hit an even better 61.4% (35-57) overall and 66.7% (14-21) from beyond the arc.
 
While the Peacocks were more efficient from the floor, CSP managed an 18-7 edge in fast break points, a 36-32 edge in points in the paint and a 14-12 edge in points off of turnovers as they forced 11 turnovers and committed just eight.
 
Stensgard was joined by Marcus Skeete and Elijah Ormiston in double figures as Skeete finished with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals while Ormiston had 11 points and four rebounds. Jacob Everson added nine points while Sunday John and George Scharlau had eight apiece off the bench. Scharlau hit all three of his shot attempts while John hit 3-4 from the floor.
 
Upper Iowa's combo of Joe Smoldt and Jareese Williams led the way as Smoldt finished with 22 points and eight assists on 8-13 shooting while Williams put up 21 points on 7-10 from three-point range.
 
Both teams came out firing in the opening moments of the contest as it took just less than four minutes for both teams to reach a dozen as UIU knocked down five of their first six shots and CSP hit all five of their attempts to make it 12-12. The Peacocks continued to connect at an incredible clip as they hit their next five shots to move to 10-11 on the night and 6-6 from deep to build a 26-18 lead at the 13:14 mark. That lead reached a dozen at 38-26 just past the midway point of the half as Smoldt and Williams hit back-to-back threes to move to 8-8 from deep on the night and 15-17 overall. They cooled off a bit from there, but still managed to extend their lead to 15 at 52-37 at the break.
 
The Peacocks added to their lead early in the second half as they used a 16-5 run to balloon it out to 68-44. The lead grew to as many as 26 at 80-54 with 9:59 left on the clock, but Stensgard turned it on from there to close the gap. Stensgard scored 23 of his 30 points in the second half, including a staggering 18 points in the final 12 minutes in action, before leaving the game to a standing ovation. CSP closed on a 16-6 run to trim it to 95-84 at the final margin.