ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (9-12, 4-11 NSIC) fell to Winona State (13-8, 8-7 NSIC) by a score of 78-67 on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.
Winona State's Connor Dillon scored 20 points in the first 8:36 of the night en route to a 41-point performance as the Golden Bears fell to 7-56 in the all-time series and 2-24 on their home court.
For the Golden Bears,
Marcus Skeete filled the box score with a team-best 22 points and 14 boards to go along with three assists as he hit 8-18 from the floor. It was the junior's third 20-10 performance and fifth double-double of the season.
Skeete was joined in double figures with
Ben Kopetzki and
Reid Patterson as Kopetzki finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists while Patterson had 11 points, boards and three made threes.
Ian Sluice added nine points on 3-8 from beyond the arc.
The Golden Bears, who feature one of the most potent offenses in the league, were limited to just 33.3% (23-69) from the field and 27.8% (10-36) from deep in the loss. On the other end, WSU connected on 46.7% (28-60) overall and 40.9% (9-22) from three-point range in the win.
Dillon couldn't miss to start the contest as he scored the first 14 points for the Warriors and 20 of the first 22 as WSU ran out to a 22-9 lead eight and a half minutes of the opening half. The lead grew from there as an 8-0 run made it 32-13 with 7:10 to go before the break, but the Golden Bears flipped the script from there. Sluice and Skeete knocked down back-to-back three before a pair of Skeete free throws capped off a 12-2 run to shrink the deficit to single digits. Dillon scored the next four, but CSP claimed the final five points before the break to trim it to 38-30 heading to the locker room.
Skeete further closed the gap with a bucket early in the second half to make it a two-possession game, but a 13-5 run in favor of Winona State a few minutes later extended it back to double figures at 54-40. With the lead at 15 at 62-47 just past the midway point of the half, the Golden Bears scored seven straight to nearly cut the deficit in half, but that would be all the closer they would get as an 11-3 run in favor of WSU a couple possessions later put it out of reach. CSP scored eight of the final 11 points to bring it to a final score of 78-67.
The Golden Bears hit the road this weekend as they travel to Wayne State on Friday and Augustana on Saturday.
