WAYNE, Neb. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (8-18, 6-14 NSIC) led by as many as 16 in the second half at NSIC South-leading Wayne State (17-9, 12-8 NSIC), but they were unable to hold off the Wildcats as the Golden Bears fell 92-79 in overtime on Saturday afternoon.
A career-best 27 points from
John Grigsby helped the Golden Bears build a 46-30 edge with just over 16 minutes to play, but it wasn't enough as CSP fell to 19-30 in the all-time series and 7-16 in 23 trips to Wayne State. Grigsby scored 19 of his team-high 27 points after the break as he connected on 8-15 from the floor and 6-10 from deep to go along with six rebounds.
Grigsby was one of three Golden Bears to reach double figures in the contest as
Antwan Kimmons added 19 points, six assists and five rebounds while
Marcus Skeete added a double-double with 12 points, 10 boards and four assists. Kimmons pulled to within 15 points of Bryndan Matthews' single-season school record of 546 while Skeete tallied his fourth double-double of the season.
Jacob Everson just missed giving Concordia four in double figures as he put up nine points and six rebounds while hitting 4-6 from the floor.
The duo of Jordan Janssen and Nate Mohr led the way for Wayne State as Janssen finished with a game-best 30 points to go along with seven boards and seven assists while Mohr added 24 points and five made threes.
CSP proved to be far more efficient from beyond the arc on the afternoon as the Golden Bears doubled up the Wildcats with 12 made threes compared to six for WSC while shooting 40.0% (12-30) compared to 27.3% (6-22).
While Concordia won the battle on the perimeter, the Wildcats won the battle down low with a 42-28 edge in points in the paint as well as a 12-3 edge in second chance points aided by a 13-6 edge on the offensive glass.
Following four ties in the game's opening four minutes, Everson and Kimmons teamed up for a quick 10-0 run to turn a 10-8 deficit into an 18-10 lead at the 13:20 mark. The Golden Bear lead eventually reached double figures at 27-17 on a Grigsby three-pointer before the Wildcats chopped that lead in half with five points in a row. Kimmons extended it back to nine with a bucket and a pair of free throws to make it 33-24 before two late free throws made it 33-26 at the break.
John Grigsby exploded in the early minutes of the second half with 11 points in the first 3:43, including three three-pointers in less than two minutes, to balloon the lead all the way out to 46-30 with 16:17 to go. Wayne State would not go away, however, as they scored 14 of the next 15 points as a part of a larger 23-5 stretch that gave the hosts a 53-51 lead of their own with 7:35 left on the clock. The pendulum swung back the other way with back-to-back threes for Grigsby and
Emad Elniel putting the Golden Bears back in front. Their advantage grew back to eight at 70-62 with 3:31 to play on an
Ian Sluice three as the Golden Bears looked to put it out of reach, but Mohr put together a Grigsby-like run of his own with three three-pointers from 2:44 to 0:39 before a Jordan Janssen steal and a layup tied the score at 75-75 five seconds later. Both teams had a chance to win it in the final few seconds, but the game moved to overtime with the score still even at 75-all.
The two teams traded buckets in the opening minute-plus of overtime with the score once again tied at 79-79 with 3:52 left in the extra session, but that proved to be the end of the scoring for CSP as WSC scored the final 13 points of the night to pull off the 92-79 overtime victory.
The Golden Bears return home on Thursday as they host Upper Iowa on Senior Night before closing out the regular season at Winona State on Saturday.
