MARSHALL, Minn.  – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (7-2, 2-1 NSIC) capped off a perfect weekend road trip on Saturday evening, knocking off #18 Southwest Minnesota State (7-2, 2-1 NSIC) 92-85 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

The win was the Golden Bears' second win over a ranked opponent this season after they topped #16 Fort Hays State 82-68 in November and just the third victory over a top 25 opponent since 2017. Concordia now holds a 17-32 all-time record against SMSU, with the Bears winning three of the last four meetings.

The NSIC-leading Golden Bear offense proved to be explosive once again, logging its second consecutive game with 90 or more points while shooting over 50% from the field with a 36-65 (55.4%) shooting performance from the field while knocking down 13 of their 30 attempts (43.3%) from beyond the arc. Concordia held an 8-3 advantage in fast break points and the CSP bench outscored that of SMSU 22-19 in the game.

The CSP offense spread the ball extremely well, finishing with 24 assists, tied for the ninth most in program history, on 36 made baskets while SMSU had just eight assists on 31 buckets.

The Golden Bears never trailed in the opening half, but the Mustangs kept the game close early on with CSP's advantage never growing to more than seven points through the game's first 17 minutes. That changed in the final three minutes of the half, with CSP going on an 8-2 run to take an 11-point lead at 53-42 with just 54 seconds on the clock. The Mustangs responded to finish the half strong, scoring four straight, including a tip-in at the buzzer, to cut the deficit back down to seven at halftime.

SMSU continued to battle early in the second half, managing to tie the game at 57 all with 15:51 to play. Concordia recaptured the momentum at that point, grabbing the lead once again and pushing it to double figures with an 81-71 advantage with 7:51 on the clock. The Mustangs would not go down easy as they fought back to make it a one-point game at 81-80 with less than five minutes to play, but Concordia slammed the door with an 11-5 run, including a pair of clutch three pointers from Antwan Kimmons and Ben Kopetzki, to close the game and secure the seven-point win.

Senior forward Cade Meyer logged his second highest scoring output of the season, pouring in 20 points on an extremely efficient 9-of-11 shooting performance while pulling down seven rebounds.

Kimmons finished with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and added a team high eight rebounds and seven assists. Marcus Skeete also finished with 18 points, also contributing seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Kopetzki rounded out the starters in double figures with 11 points, six assists, and four rebounds.

Reid Patterson provided a valuable spark off the bench, scoring 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Sean Mathieu added eight points and three assists for Concordia's second unit

The Mustangs were led by Jakob Braaten with 19 points and three rebounds while Caleb Schlaak logged an 11-point, 15-rebound double-double off the bench.  

Concordia will be back in action next weekend, hosting Wayne State (Neb.) on Friday and Augustana (S.D.) on Saturday at the Gangelhoff Center.