ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (9-16, 4-15 NSIC) hits the road for the final time this season as they travel to UMary (6-18, 1-17 NSIC) on Friday and #15 Minot State (18-6, 13-5 NSIC) on Saturday.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears fell to Sioux Falls 76-67 on Friday and Southwest Minnesota State 87-64 on Saturday.
 
On Friday, the Golden Bears led at the half before USF turned the tide after the break. For the first time in six games, 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.
 
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.
 
On Saturday, 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. 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.
 
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.
 
UMARY SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears take a 17-9 record against the Marauders into this weekend's matchup between the two schools. While Concordia has put up a solid 9-4 record on their home court against U-Mary, they have been even better in Bismarck with eight wins in 11 trips there. CSP has been especially successful in the recent history of the series with the Golden Bears claiming wins in 11 of the last 14 meetings and five in the last six.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE MARAUDERS
Just over a month ago on Jan. 6, the Golden Bears battled their way to a hard fought 84-76 win over the Marauders in St. Paul.
 
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. The last time CSP shut out an opponent from three-point range also came against UMary in an 0-12 effort all the way back on Feb. 8, 2008 at Gangelhoff Center. Concordia turned that into a 30-point advantage from deep as they hit 10-26 (38.5%) from three.
 
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. Sean Mathieu and Ian Sluice joined him in double figures as Mathieu finished with 15 points on 6-9 shooting with four boards while Sluice had 11 points and six rebounds. Japannah Kellogg filled the stat sheet with nine points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists in the win.
 
MINOT STATE SERIES HISTORY
Concordia and Minot State have met just 11 previous times with the Golden Bears going 3-8 in those meetings. After the two teams split the first two meetings, the Beavers rattled off five straight wins and seven of the last nine. While CSP has yet to register a win in five trips to Minot, the Golden Bears have gone 3-3 on their home court against MiSU.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE BEAVERS
In the first meeting of the year on Jan. 5, CSP ran into a hot shooting Minot State in a 103-65 loss at Gangelhoff Center.
 
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. On the night, the Beavers connected on 60.0% (42-70) from the floor and 55.6% (10-18) from beyond the arc while CSP was held to marks of 36.5% (23-63) and 27.6% (8-29), respectively. Minot State held a significant 52-26 advantage in the paint to go along with a 47-29 rebounding edge in the victory.
 
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. Marcus Skeete added nine points while Japannah Kellogg and DJ Akpati finished with seven apiece on the night.
 
STAT LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears rank highly in several statistical categories.
 
As a team, CSP leads the NSIC and 24th in the nation with 9.9 made threes per game while they rank third and 87th, respectively, in free throws made with 15.1 per game. Concordia also ranks fifth in the league and 85th in the country with 79.2 points per night as well as third in the conference and 27th in the nation with 27.9 defensive rebounds per game.
 
Individually, Marcus Skeete's 84.2% free throw percentage ranks fifth in the league and his 5.4 defensive rebounds per game are good for sixth. The junior also sits in sixth in field goal percentage (48.9%) and ninth in rebounds (6.8) and 11th in scoring (15.6). Japannah Kellogg ranks fourth with 1.16 blocks per game and seventh with 2.21 offensive rebounds 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 1,191 points over 91 career games. He became 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 became the fourth member of the 1,000/500/200 club in navy and gold on Jan. 27 as he joined Jeff Chamberlain, Cole Olstad and Matthews in that exclusive group.