ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (4-16, 2-12 NSIC) saw their late surge fall short in a 75-67 loss at Northern State (15-5, 11-3 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
Trailing by 20 with under 10 minutes to play, the Golden Bears rattled off a 19-5 run to trim the deficit to six in the final two minutes of the contest, but their comeback bid ran out of steam as the Wolves held on to make it eight straight wins in the all-time series and 22 wins in 23 meetings in Aberdeen.
It was a defensive battle at Wachs Arena as CSP held NSU to 42.9% (27-63) from the floor while connecting on 39.1% (25-64) on the offensive end. The Golden Bears won the battle on the glass as they finished with a 43-35 rebounding edge, pulling down 10 offensive boards compared to six for Northern State. Concordia also proved to be more effective down low as 34 of their 67 points came in the paint while NSU had 26 paint points. The Wolves found an advantage from beyond the arc as they knocked down 13 threes on 32 attempts (40.6%) while the Golden Bears managed seven on 29 attempts (24.1%).
Junior
Antwan Kimmons put up a massive performance as he matched a game-best with 25 points on 10-18 shooting while pulling down a DII program-record 16 rebounds to go along with three assists. His 16 boards broke the previous record of 15, set by five different players, most recently on Nov. 11, 2018 by Bryndan Matthews. His 25 point effort was also his seventh with 25+ on the season.
Kimmons was joined in double figures in scoring by
Jacob Everson, who added 15 points on 6-13 shooting with two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Marcus Skeete chipped in nine points and four boards while
John Grigsby added seven points.
Augustin Reede matched Kimmons with 25 points for the Wolves as he hit 9-17 from the floor and 7-13 from deep in the win. Sam Masten contributed 23 points, five rebounds and five assists as well.
It was the Wolves that jumped out to an early lead as they scored eight of the first 10 points before the Golden Bears trimmed it back to three at 11-8. NSU responded with another run, this time an extended 20-7 run over five and a half minutes, to push their lead to 31-15 with nine minutes to go in the half. CSP bounced back with a 10-2 burst to trim it back to single digits, at 33-25 with 3:45 left, but Northern State turned it back in their favor with a 13-2 run of their own to take their largest lead of the half at 46-27. A Kimmons layup followed by an Elniel three cut it to 46-32 heading to the locker room.
The two teams treaded water over the first 10 minutes of the second half with neither team making a run, but the Golden Bears started to chip away after the Wolves pushed their lead to 20 at 66-46 at the midway point of the half. Still trailing by 18 with 6:03 left on the clock, Concordia exploded for a crucial 12-0 run over the next four minutes to make it a two possession game at 71-65. That proved to be all the closer they would get, however, as a layup and a pair of free throws for Belka pushed it back to 10. Everson grabbed a late layup to bring it to a final score of 75-67.
The Golden Bears are back at Gangelhoff Center next week as they host Minot State on Friday night and UMary on Saturday.
