ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (9-18, 4-17 NSIC) closes out the regular season at home this weekend as they host St. Cloud State (12-14, 8-12 NSIC) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.
 
SENIOR DAY
Prior to tip-off in Saturday's season finale, the Golden Bears will honor their two seniors, Jordan Horn and John Grigsby, with a brief on-court ceremony.
 
Horn played a starring role in 10 games in navy and gold this season, putting up a team-best 20.5 points per game, before missing the rest of the season due to injury.
 
Grigsby has been a threat from beyond the arc in his two seasons on campus as the big man has knocked down 46.2% from deep this season while averaging 5.6 points per night.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears closed out their 2023-24 road slate with a 95-74 loss at UMary and a 70-67 loss at #23 Minot State.
 
On Friday, CSP held a 49-40 lead with 17:21 left in the contest before 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. 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.
 
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.
 
On Saturday, Concordia came storming back from a 20-point first half deficit but saw a potential game-tying three at the buzzer rim out in a 70-67 loss. With 4.9 seconds to play, the Golden Bears had the ball in front of their own bench and they were able to execute the inbound play and get off a contested look in the near corner, but the attempt was just a bit too strong as Minot State secured the rebound as time expired to hold off a surging CSP down the stretch.
 
CSP freshman Ben Kopetzki had a career night as he led all players with a career-best 24 points on 9-12 shooting and a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc in 34 minutes of action. He added three boards and three assists while clearing 15 points for the fifth game in a row and eighth in the past 11 to bring his season average up to 10.4 per game.
 
SCSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears will meet the Huskies for the 34th time in series history this weekend as CSP has gone 7-26 in the previous 33 meetings. Concordia's best stretch in the series came from 2010-12 as they won three of four meetings during that span. Since then, SCSU has won 12 of the last 14 with Concordia's lone wins coming on Jan. 3, 2015 and Jan. 18, 2019 in St. Paul. In 17 games in St. Paul, CSP has gone 5-11.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE HUSKIES
In the first meeting of the season back on Jan. 10, the Golden Bears saw the Huskies pull away with a big run midway through the contest in an 86-56 loss at St. Cloud State.
 
After scoring the first nine points of the game and building an 18-8 lead midway through the opening half, the Golden Bears saw SCSU surge ahead with a massive 66-23 run over the next 21 minutes of play. As one of the most potent offenses on the NSIC, the Golden Bears were unable to find their rhythm on the offensive end as they were held to 36.1% (22-61) from the floor and 9.5% (2-21) from beyond the arc. The two made threes were a season low as CSP was held below seven made threes for just the second time of the season.
 
Japannah Kellogg led the way for the Golden Bears with a full stat line as he finished with a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds as well as three steals and three blocks. He hit an efficient 6-9 shooting, pushing his season mark to 60.2% from the floor.
 
Marcus Skeete joined Kellogg in double figures with 11 points on 4-6 from the floor to go along with four rebounds. Ben Kopetzki and Reid Patterson each chipped in seven points apiece off the bench as Kopetzki added two boards and two assists while Patterson had a pair of rebounds.
 
STAT LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears rank highly in several statistical categories.
 
As a team, CSP leads the NSIC and ranks 22nd in the nation with 10.0 made threes per game while they rank third and 112th, respectively, in free throws made with 14.5 per game. Concordia also ranks fifth in the league and 95th in the country with 78.6 points per night as well as third in the conference and 32nd in the nation with 27.7 defensive rebounds per game.
 
Individually, Marcus Skeete's 84.2% free throw percentage ranks sixth in the league and his 5.4 defensive rebounds per game are also good for sixth. The junior also sits in fifth in field goal percentage (48.9%), 10th in rebounds (6.8) and 11th in scoring (15.6).
 
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.