ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-7, 3-6 NSIC) hits the road for a Wednesday night trip to St. Cloud State (6-8, 2-6 NSIC) in NSIC play.
 
LAST TIME OUT
In the first weekend back after the holiday break, CSP picked up a split against Minot State and UMary at Gangelhoff Center.
 
On Friday, CSP ran into a hot shooting Minot State in a 103-65 loss. After seeing the Beavers hit 13 of their first 14 shots over the first seven and a half minutes of the contest to build a 29-13 advantage, the Golden Bears were unable to recover. Sean Mathieu provided a bright spot for Concordia as he hit 5-9 from the floor, 3-7 from three-point range and 4-4 from the free throw line to finish with a career-best 17 points. He added a pair of rebounds and a pair of assists in the loss.
 
In Saturday's meeting with the Marauders, Concordia battled their way to a hard fought 84-76 win. Strong perimeter defense aided the effort for the Golden Bears as they held their opponent without a made three-pointer for the first time in nearly 16 years, holding the Marauders to 0-12 from beyond the arc. CSP's starting five were their top five scorers in the contest as the quintet combined for 74 of the team's 84 points. Marcus Skeete led all players with 27 points on 8-18 shooting to go along with six rebounds, two rebounds and two steals.
 
SCSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears will meet the Huskies for the 33rd time in series history this weekend as CSP has gone 7-25 in the previous 32 meetings. Concordia's best stretch in the series came from 2010-12 as they won three of four meetings during that span. Since then, SCSU has won 11 of the last 13 with Concordia's lone wins coming on Jan. 3, 2015 and Jan. 18, 2019 in St. Paul. In 16 games in St. Cloud, CSP has gone 2-14.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE HUSKIES
On Jan. 7, 2023, Concordia stormed back from an 18 point second half deficit to force overtime before falling to St. Cloud State 87-78 at Gangelhoff Center.
 
Trailing 52-34 with 13:39 to play, Concordia took control with a massive 43-22 run to take a late 77-74 lead before the Huskies knocked down three free throws in the final 8.1 seconds to send it to an extra session. From there, SCSU scored 10 of 11 points after regulation to hand CSP an 87-78 loss.
 
After connecting on an efficient 52.4% (11-21) from the floor and 40.0% (4-10) from three-point range in the first half, CSP was even better after the break as they hit 55.6% (15-27) and 45.5% (5-11), respectively, in the final 20 minutes of regulation. The Golden Bears also took advantage of their opportunities from the free throw line in the second half as they knocked down 93.8% (15-16) en route to finishing the game at 85.0% (17-20) from the charity stripe.
 
Antwan Kimmons put up his fourth 30-point effort of the season as he filled it up with 30 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals on an incredible 10-13 from the floor and 10-11 from the charity stripe. Ian Sluice gave CSP a big boost from the bench as he hit 4-6 from deep and 5-7 overall to finish with a career-best 17 points.
 
STAT LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears rank highly in several statistical categories.
 
As a team, CSP leads the NSIC and ranks 26th in the nation with 10.2 made threes per game while they also rank first and 37th, respectively, in free throws made with 17.5 per game. Concordia also ranks second in the league and 50th in the country with 83.1 points per night as well as second in the conference and 12th in the nation with 29.1 defensive rebounds per game.
 
Individually, Marcus Skeete's 5.9 defensive rebounds per game are good for sixth in the league and his 84.2% free throw percentage ranks fifth. The junior also sits in second in sixth in field goal percentage (51.9%) and 10th in rebounds per game (6.9). Japannah Kellogg ranks sixth with 2.5 offensive rebounds per game and fourth with 1.2 blocks per game.
 
CHASING HISTORY
Junior Marcus Skeete has been a key offensive contributor throughout his four seasons with the Golden Bears as he has tallied 1,036 points over 81 career games, becoming the 19th member of the 1,000 point club at CSP on Dec. 16 at Minnesota State and first since Bryndan Matthews in 2019. The Aurora, Ill. native also sits 25 rebounds shy of 500 and has 206 assists in his career. Only three players have reached the 1,000/500/200 club in navy and gold, with Skeete looking to join Jeff Chamberlain, Cole Olstad and Matthews in that exclusive group.