ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-2) rolled to a convincing 96-54 victory over Truman State (2-3) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center in the CSP Thanksgiving Classic.
The win was CSP's largest overall since a 96-42 win over Northland on Nov. 22, 2014 and second-largest against an NCAA Division II opponent, trailing only a 91-47 win over Minnesota Crookston all the way back on Jan. 7, 2006.
The Golden Bears were dominant on both ends of the court as they hit 53.4% (31-58) from the floor while holding the Bulldogs to 31.7% (20-63) overall. The gap was even bigger beyond the arc as CSP knocked down the second-most threes in program history with 17 on 36 attempts (47.2%) while TSU hit 6-26 (23.1%). Their 17 made threes were just two behind the record set on Jan. 18, 2019 against St. Cloud State. Concordia added an advantage of 17-20 (85.0%) to 8-13 (61.5%) from the free throw line to aid the effort. CSP was also opportunistic with their chances in the turnover battle as they turned 17 TSU turnovers into 21 points while Truman State managed just four points on Concordia's 15 turnovers.
For the second game in a row and third time six games this season,
Jordan Horn paced the Golden Bears in scoring as he led all played with 21 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double in navy and gold. The senior hit 6-12 from the floor and 5-8 from beyond the arc while adding a pair of assists and steals in the win.
Horn was one of five CSP players in double figures as
Marcus Skeete,
Ian Sluice and
Reid Patterson all scored a dozen while
John Grigsby chipped in 11. Skeete added four boards and three steals while Sluice knocked down four from three-point range. Patterson was a perfect 3-3 shooting, 2-2 from deep and 4-4 from the line on the night while Grisgby hit three of his four three-pointers.
Blaise Porter paced Truman State with 12 points in the loss.
Concordia set the tone from the opening tip as they scored the first 11 points of the night while holding the Bulldogs off the board until the 15:53 mark. That proved to be a lead they would not relinquish at any point as they put together another big run midway through the half, this time an 18-2 burst, to balloon the lead to 20 at 32-12 with 5:23 left before the break. TSU managed to trim it to a dozen late in the half before CSP took a 41-26 lead to the locker room.
The Golden Bears continued to pour it on in the second half with a 10-0 run, a 9-0 run and a 12-0 run all in the first 11 minutes of action to combine for a massive 37-10 run that pushed the lead over 40 at 80-39 with 9:19 to play. It grew to as many as 47 at 91-44 before Concordia settled for a final margin of 96-54.
The Golden Bears will look to make it an unbeaten weekend tomorrow as they host Upper Iowa at 4 p.m. in the final game of the CSP Thanksgiving Classic.
