ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (5-2) will hit the road for a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference contests this weekend, taking on Sioux Falls (5-2) on Friday evening and #18 Southwest Minnesota State (6-1) on Saturday evening.

DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears opened NSIC play at home last week with a single game against Winona State, falling 83-73 at the Gangelhoff Center on Tuesday.

The Golden Bears were paced by senior guard Antwan Kimmons, who poured in a game-high 29 points on 9-18 shooting from the field (50.0%) and added 12 rebounds, seven assists, a steal, and a block for his first double-double of the season.

Marcus Skeete was the only other Golden Bear in double figures with 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block. Cade Meyer finished with nine points on 4-7 shooting from the field, adding six rebounds, and a steal. Reid Patterson led the Concordia bench with nine points and two rebounds.

As a unit, Concordia had its worst shooting night of the season so far, knocking down just 22 of 64 attempts (34.4%) from the field and going 7-35 from beyond the arc (20.0%). The Warriors fared only slightly better, going 28-24 (43.8%) overall and 5-22 from deep (22.7%). Concordia was the more effective team from the charity stripe, making 22-of-25 (88.0%) while WSU was 22-of-29 (75.9%). Despite being out-rebounded 44-39, the Golden Bears held a 16-11 advantage in second chance points.

Both teams spent time with the lead in the opening half with CSP holding the advantage for 6:15 of game time while Winona State spent 11:31 in the driver's seat. Neither team held a particularly large lead at any point, with the Bears leading by five at their peak and the Warriors maxing out at a seven-point lead. WSU held a 25-19 advantage with just over four minutes remaining in the half, but the Golden Bears closed the half on an 11-5 run to trail by a single point at the intermission.

Concordia came out strong in the second half, putting together an early 10-4 run to take a 39-34 lead with just over 15 minutes remaining. That lead proved to be short lived, as Winona State quickly recaptured the advantage and pushed it as high as nine in the following minutes. The Golden Bears managed to pull within three at 66-63 with 4:14 on the clock, but that proved to be as close as they would come with the Warriors capitalizing on their frequent trips to the charity stripe down the stretch, going 11-12 from the free throw line in the final four minutes to win the game by double digits.

SIOUX FALLS SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears hold a 5-18 record against the Cougars in the all-time series, with Concordia's last win over Sioux Falls coming on February 3, 2023 at the Gangelhoff Center. Sioux Falls claimed both meetings last season, winning 85-59 at home in December and 76-67 at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE COUGARS
When the two teams last met in late February of this year, Sioux Falls came away with a 76-67 win at the Gangelhoff Center.

Concordia was held to single digits from beyond the arc as the Cougars limited CSP to 5-18 (27.8%) from three-point range and 23-58 (39.7%) overall from the field. It was a defensive battle on both ends as the Golden Bears limited USF to 43.1% (28-65) shooting and 37.5% (6-16) from deep in the loss.
 
CSP did manage a 41-37 edge in rebounding while the Cougars used a 44-28 advantage in points in the paint to aid their effort.
 
Junior Marcus Skeete continued to do it all for Concordia as he tallied his sixth double-double and fourth 20-10 performance of the season as he led all players with 21 points and 10 rebounds while dishing out three assists and grabbing a pair of steals. He collected 17 of his 21 points before the break and he hit 7-17 from the floor and 7-10 from the line on the night.
 
Ben Kopetzki wasn't far behind as he put up 17 points on 7-16 shooting while pulling down three boards. John Grigsby just missed double figures with nine points on 3-5 shooting and 2-4 from three-point range off the bench.

SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears have posted a 16-32 all-time record against the Mustangs, including a record of 6-18 in games hosted by SMSU. CSP has held a slight edge in recent years, winning six of the last 10 meetings. The teams split the series last year, with Concordia winning 88-68 in December in Marshall, Minn. and the Mustangs winning 87-64 in February at the Gangelhoff Center.  

LAST MEETING WITH THE MUSTANGS
The two teams last met in February of this year, with Southwest Minnesota State securing an 87-64 win at the Gangelhoff Center.

The Mustangs used a 17-0 run to build a quick 22-4 advantage and they did not look back as they flipped the script from the first meeting of the season when the Golden Bears claimed an 88-68 win in Marshall. The win was SMSU's third in the past nine meetings as CSP dropped to 16-33 all-time in 49 contests between the two schools.
 
One night after seeing their string of five consecutive games with double-digit threes come to an end, the Golden Bears were back firing from deep as they matched their third highest total with 14 made threes while 40 of their 57 shot attempts came from beyond the arc. The 40 three-point attempts were the second most in the DII era at CSP. SMSU finished with half as many makes from three-point range with seven, but they won the battle down low as they outscored CSP 52-16 in the paint and used a 40-28 rebounding edge to tally a 16-2 advantage in second chance points. Turnovers also played a big role as the Mustangs turned 15 CSP turnovers into 28 points while the Golden Bears scored eight points on SMSU's nine turnovers.
 
Three different Golden Bears reached double figures in scoring, led by 15 points on 5-8 shooting and 3-5 from beyond the arc for Ben Kopetzki. It was the freshman's fifth straight game and eighth of the last nine with at least 13 points while he added four assists and a pair of boards.
 
John Grigsby added 11 points on 4-6 from the floor and 3-5 from deep while Sean Mathieu contributed 10 points, four assists and four boards. Will Boser and DJ Akpati both finished just shy of double figures with nine points apiece as Boser hit three from deep and Akpati had three rebounds and two steals.

STAT LEADERS
Seven games into the season, the Golden Bears are off to a hot start in several statistical categories.
 
As a team, CSP's scoring average of 87.0 points per game leads the conference. Concordia also ranks second in the NSIC and 34^th in the nation with 41.00 rebounds per game.

Concordia's Antwan Kimmons leads the conference and ranks second in all of Division II with 27.6 points per game this season. The senior also ranks second in the NSIC in assists per game with an average of 5.1.

Marcus Skeete has been active both on offense and on the glass, ranking third in the NSIC with 8.7 rebounds per game and 13th in the conference with 15.2 points per game. His three double-doubles are tied for second most in the league and 15^th most in Division II.

Senior forward Cade Meyer's field goal percentage of 68.3% is good for third in the conference and 13^th in all of Division II so far.