CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (2-1) made it two wins in a row as they picked up an 86-76 road win at Minnesota Crookston (2-1) on Wednesday night.
The Golden Bears improved to 27-9 in the all-time series with the Golden Eagles as they won their 14
th game in 19 trips to Crookston.
CSP led for nearly 35 minutes on the night as both teams put up efficient efforts from the floor. Concordia finished a solid 50.0% (32-64) from the floor and 40.9% (9-22) from beyond the arc while UMC hit 51.7% (30-58) overall and 46.7% (7-15) from deep. The Golden Bears won the transition battle as they tallied 15 points on the break while holding UMC to just two. CSP also finished with a 38-31 advantage on the glass, including a 10-6 edge in offensive rebounds, in the win.
Junior
Marcus Skeete collected his fifth career 20-10 performance as he led the team with 27 points, 12 boards, four assists and three steals in a full stat line. He connected on 11-18 from the floor and 4-5 from the line in the win.
Skeete was one of four starters in double figures as the starting five combined for 74 of the team's 86 points on the night.
Jordan Horn put up 19 points, three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals while
Antwan Kimmons added 13 points and five boards in the game.
Japannah Kellogg was nearly perfect from the field as he knocked down for of his six shots to finish with 12 points and seven rebounds in the win.
Blaize Sagna accounted for nearly half of Minnesota Crookston's offense as he led all players with 34 points on 13-22 shooting and 6-8 from the free throw line to go along with six rebounds.
CSP got off to a fast start with the first five points of the contest, but the Golden Eagles battled back to tie it up at 11-11 before taking the lead at 17-14 at the 12:43 mark. That lead grew to five at 22-17 two minutes later, but it proved to be short-lived as Concordia rattled off a 13-1 spanning four and a half minutes to give the Golden Bears a 30-23 advantage with 6:20 to go in the half. The margin remained within five with just over a minute of play before CSP surged with the final seven points of the period to take a 49-37 edge into the locker room.
After a quick UMC layup to open the second half, the Concordia run continued as they scored 11 of the next 14 points to make it an 18-5 run, growing the lead to 18 at 60-42 with 16:25 to play. From there, Minnesota Crookston chipped away as they strung together a 12-3 run to trim the CSP lead to single digits at 65-56. The Golden Bears held strong from there, however, as they scored nine of the next 11 to push it back to 16 with just over six minutes to go. The Golden Eagles made one final push as they closed the gap to nine at 81-72 with 2:11 left and eight with 35 seconds on the clock, but Concordia took care of business as they sealed the 86-76 victory.
The Golden Bears return home on Saturday afternoon as they host Northern Michigan at noon in their home opener at Gangelhoff Center.
