ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (4-0) will look to keep its perfect start to the 2024-25 campaign alive this weekend at the Peacock Classic in Fayette, Iowa with games on Saturday against Upper Iowa (3-1) and Sunday against Northwest Missouri State (1-3).

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LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears played a pair of non-conference games last week, topping St. Cloud State on the road 115-104 in overtime on Thursday and defeating Michigan Tech 83-67 in CSP's home opener on Sunday.

On Thursday, the Bears were fueled by senior guard Antwan Kimmons, who scored 18 in the first half and exploded for 25 in the second half to finish with a career-high 43 points. The senior guard became just the third Golden Bear to top the 40-point mark in a game, joining Curt Kietzer (40 points, 1984-85) and coming within three points of Matt Cadwell's 46-point record against Upper Iowa in 2009. Kimmons was also extremely efficient, knocking down 16 of his 21 attempts (76.1%) from the field and going 10-11 from the free throw line while adding six assists, five rebounds, and a block.

The Golden Bears also shot hot as a team throughout the game, connecting on 41 of their 66 attempts (62.1%) from the field for the fifth-highest field goal percentage in team history. CSP finished the game 13-25 from beyond the arc for the 20^th-highest three-point field goal percentage in program history at 52.0%. Concordia's 115 points were its second-most in the Division II era, trailing only the 118-point effort against Arkansas Tech in 2018.

Concordia worked out to an 11-6 lead early in the game, but the Huskies responded with a seven-point run to take their first lead at 13-11. That lead proved to be short lived as CSP quickly regained the advantage and pushed it to 13 with a 59-46 lead at halftime. The Bears led wire-to-wire in the second half, pushing the advantage as high as 17 points on the way to the 11-point victory.

On Sunday, Concordia opened play at the Gangelhoff Center with an 83-67 win over Michigan Tech. Kimmons finished as Concordia's scoring leader for the fourth time in as many games, tallying 25 points on 10-17 shooting while going 5-5 from the free throw line and adding six rebounds and six assists.

Cade Meyer put together his strongest outing in the navy and gold thus far, logging 24 points on 11-16 shooting while pulling down a game-high seven rebounds and adding three blocks. Marcus Skeete also finished in double figures, scoring 10 points to go along with four rebounds and an assist.  Ian Sluice added nine points and four rebounds on 3-5 shooting, with all five attempts coming from beyond the arc.

Ben Kopetzki rounded out the starters with four points while Sean Mathieu, Reid Patterson, and Will Boser added three points each off the bench for the Golden Bears.

With Concordia holding a narrow advantage at 18-16 near the midpoint in the first half, the Golden Bears put together a 12-0 run spanning more than four minutes to put themselves comfortably in the driver's seat at 30-16. The Huskies responded with a 10-5 run of their own to cut the deficit down to nine points at 35-26 at halftime. The Golden Bears led wire-to-wire and continued to push the advantage throughout the second half, leading by as many as 21 before securing the 16-point victory at 83-67.

UPPER IOWA SERIES HISTORY
A former NSIC member school, Upper Iowa and CSP have faced off 37 times prior to this weekend with the Peacocks holding a 21-16 advantage in the series. Concordia holds a narrow 9-8 edge in meetings in Fayette, Iowa, but the Peacocks have had the advantage in recent years as they have claimed eight of the last 10 matchups.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE PEACOCKS
The Golden Bears and Peacocks last met at CSP's Thanksgiving Tournament a season ago, with Concordia claiming a 103-92 win.
Ian Sluice knocked down a three just five seconds into the contest and the Golden Bears were off and running from there. With their lead at one at 9-8 three and a half minutes in, CSP rattled off a quick 9-0 run to push it to double figures at 18-8. The lead reached a dozen at 22-10 and again at 24-12 before a 14-2 run in favor of Upper Iowa evened the score at 26-26 with 7:43 left before the break. Concordia eventually had it back in double digits at 46-35 with 1:50 to go before six straight points for UIU made it 46-42 after 20 minutes of play.
 
The second half proved to be much more back and forth with six of the game's seven ties and all eight lead changes came after the break. The Peacocks quickly extended their run to 10-0 as they tied it up at 46-46, setting up a stretch of seven minutes in which neither team led by more than five. Concordia had the lead back up to six at 66-60 with 11:29 to play, but an extended 13-6 run the other way had the Peacocks out front for the first time of the night at 73-72.
 
After a few minutes of jostling back and forth between the two teams, the Golden Bears compiled the decisive run as they used a 13-2 run to turn an 82-81 Upper Iowa lead with 5:37 left into a 94-84 advantage with 2:15 to go. The lead would not shrink below six the rest of the way as CSP secured the 103-92 victory.
As a team, the Golden Bears cleared 50.0% shooting for the second day in a row as they knocked down 51.6% (33-64) from the floor and 41.7% (10-24) from beyond the arc. They edged the Peacocks in both categories as UIU hit 45.7% (37-81) overall and 20.0% (4-20) from deep in the loss. Concordia also held a significant advantage from the free throw line as they hit 27 free throws compared to 14 for Upper Iowa as well as a massive 29-2 advantage in bench scoring.
 
NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE SERIES HISTORY
Concordia and Northwest Missouri State have met just one time prior to this weekend, with the Bearcats claiming a 78-76 win in November, 2002 in Duluth, Minn.
  
STAT LEADERS
Four games into the season, the Golden Bears are off to a hot start in several statistical categories.
 
As a team, CSP ranks third in the NSIC and 13^th in the nation with a 53.4% field goal percentage. Concordia's 9.5 three pointers per game also sit third in the conference, ranking 57^th in Division II. The Golden Bears lead the NSIC and sit 17^th in scoring offense with an average of 93.8 points per game.
 
Named NSIC Player of the Week for his efforts last week, Concordia's Antwan Kimmons leads the conference and ranks second in all of Division II with 29.5 points per game this season.
Senior forward Cade Meyer's field goal percentage of 73.0% is good for second in the conference and 12^th in all of Division II so far.
 
CHASING HISTORY
Marcus Skeete continues to climb the Concordia history book, now ranking ninth in program history with 1,248 points in his career. The Aurora, Ill. native became the fourth member of the 1,000/500/200 club in navy and gold last season, joining Jeff Chamberlain, Cole Olstad, and Bryndan Matthews in that exclusive group.