BISMARCK, N.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (9-17, 4-16 NSIC) saw University of Mary (7-18, 2-17 NSIC) turn the tide in the second half as they handed the Golden Bears a 95-74 loss on Friday night.
With the Golden Bears holding a 49-40 lead with 17:21 left in the contest, the Marauders caught fire as they hit 19 of their final 25 shots and 15-19 from the free throw line to compile a 55-23 run to claim their first conference win of 2024. The loss was just CSP's fourth in the last 15 meetings between the two schools as they dropped to 17-10 in the all-time series.
Concordia continued to fire early and often from beyond the arc as they hit 14 threes for the fifth time on the season and second game in a row. It was their seventh time clearing double digits in their past eight contests. CSP was especially effective from deep before the break as they hit 9-19 (47.4%) in the first half before finishing the night at 14-36 (38.9%). They nearly tripled up UMary from beyond the arc as the Marauders were held to 5-16 (31.3%) from three-point range.
John Grigsby played a big role in the success from beyond the arc as he connected on 7-11 from three-point range to lead all players with 22 points. His seven made threes fell just one shy of the school record, matching the highest total since 2009.
Grigsby, along with
Sean Mathieu and
Ben Kopetzki, combined for 56 of the team's 74 points as the trio carried the load offensively. Mathieu hit 6-10 from the floor to tally 18 points, four boards and three assists while Kopetzki chipped in 16 points, five rebounds and five assists on the night.
The University of Mary found their edge down low as they held a 48-20 advantage in points in the paint while they added a 39-22 edge in rebounding in the win.
UMary spread around their scoring with six players in double figures, led by Zyon Smith's 18 points in the win.
It was a game of runs from the start as the Marauders scored the first eight points before three consecutive made threes for the Golden Bears gave the guests their first lead of the night. A 10-0 run for UMary put CSP in a 23-15 hole midway through the half before a 12-0 run the other way a few minutes later put Concordia back in front 33-27. The Marauders followed with yet another 10-0 burst en route to taking a 38-36 lead into the locker room at the half.
The pendulum swung back in the opposite direction just after the half as Concordia capped off a 13-2 run with 10 straight points to take their largest lead of the night at 49-40. They remained out front 52-47 with 15:50 to go before a 16-5 run for the hosts gave UMary the lead for good at 63-57. The margin sat at four at 67-63 before one last 10-0 run for the Marauders put it out of reach at 77-63. Their lead grew to as many as 23 before settling with a final score of 95-74.
Concordia is set for their last road contest of the season tomorrow evening as they take on Minot State at 5:30 p.m.
