ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (10-18, 5-17 NSIC) closed out the season with a 78-72 win over St. Cloud State (12-16, 8-14 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears secured a split in the season series as they moved to 8-26 in the all-time series with the Huskies, including a 6-11 mark in St. Paul.
Concordia put the clamps on St. Cloud State as they limited SCSU to just 31.7% (20-63) from the floor and 24.0% (6-25) from beyond the arc in the victory. On the offensive end, CSP finished with a mark of 40.7% (22-54) overall and 39.1% (9-23) from deep. The Golden Bears added a 9-2 edge on the break to aid their effort.
Four of Concordia's five starters reached double figures in scoring, led by a career-best 19 points from
Sean Mathieu. The sophomore knocked down 4-9 from the floor and 9-12 from the free throw line while adding five assists, four rebounds and two steals in the contest.
Chet Kloss chipped in a career night of his own as he compiled his first career double-double with 12 points and 13 boards on 4-6 shooting.
Ben Kopetzki added 15 points, five assists and four rebounds on the night.
Ian Sluice was the fourth starter in double digits as he knocked down 3-6 from three-point range to collect 10 points while
DJ Akpati came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points.
Jamiir Allen paced the Huskies with 15 points and eight boards while Nate Dahl just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
An early 6-0 run gave the Huskies their largest lead of the opening half at 11-4 just over five minutes in before the Golden Bears slowly chipped away. With the lead still at seven at 21-14 at the 8:46 mark, CSP embarked on a 12-3 burst to grab the lead at 26-24 three and a half minutes later. After a 5-0 run in favor of SCSU, Concordia responded with six of their own before four free throws for St. Cloud State gave the visitors a 33-32 lead at the half.
The Husky lead was back to four with a three to open the second half, but the Golden Bears turned the tide with seven straight points to spark a 12-2 run to grab a six-point edge of their own at 44-38 with 14:26 to play. The lead fluctuated between one and two possessions over the next seven plus minutes until an 8-2 stretch pushed the lead to nine at 57-48. The lead eventually hit double figures at 60-50 with 5:21 left on the clock before growing to 11 on several occasions down the stretch, including as late as 69-58 at the 1:36 mark as it never shrank below six the rest of the way.
