ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (12-3, 7-2 NSIC) will return home this week while riding a three-game winning streak, hosting St. Cloud State (9-7, 5-3 NSIC) on Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. before taking the weekend off.

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NABC/D2CIDA DIVISION II PLAYER OF THE WEEK
For his efforts in Concordia's last four games, senior guard was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC)/Division II Conference Information Directors Association (D2CIDA) Division II Player of the Week on Tuesday afternoon. A two-time Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Week so far this season, Kimmons becomes the first Golden Bear in program history to earn national weekly recognition.

Over the four-game holiday break, Kimmons averaged 30.8 points, 7.25 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game. The senior guard from St. Paul, Minn. set a career-high with 43 points in a win over #12 MSU Moorhead and scored another 40 in a win over Minnesota Duluth.  In the win over UMD, he became the 20th player in CSP history to score 1,000 career points. With three games scoring 40 or more points this season, Kimmons now owns three of Concordia's five 40-plus point performances in program history and is the only Golden Bear to achieve the feat on more than one occasion. 

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears opened the new year with a pair of wins on the road last week, knocking off No. 12 MSU Moorhead 93-87 on Friday and defeating Northern State 78-75 on Saturday.

In the win over #12 MSU Moorhead, senior guard Antwan Kimmons matched his career high with 43 points, the second most in school history, on 16-of-35 shooting to go along with six rebounds, three assists, and a steal for his second consecutive game with 40-plus points and his third of the season.

Swingman Marcus Skeete was Concordia's second leading scorer with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting while pulling down seven rebounds and adding an assist and a steal. Senior forward Cade Meyer had another efficient outing, scoring 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting while leading the team with eight rebounds. 

Ben Kopetzki and Ian Sluice rounded out Concordia's starting five with seven and two points, respectively. Reid Patterson and Will Boser provided CSP's only bench points of the evening with three each. 

After trailing by double digits early in the opening half, the Golden Bears offense came alive and battled back to hold a seven-point lead at halftime. Concordia's lead grew to as many as 16 midway through the second half, but the Dragons managed to cut the deficit to single digits in the game's final minutes before the buzzer sounded with CSP on top 93-87.

On Saturday, the Golden Bears found themselves in an 18-6 hole early in the first half, but battled back to make it a four-point game at 42-38 at the intermission. The Golden Bears regained the lead early in the second half and held it for the remainder of the game. Northern State inbounded the ball trailing by three with under four seconds to play, but the would-be game tying shot did not fall for the Wolves as the Bears hung on for the close win. 

Kimmons finished as the game's scoring leader once again, tallying 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field to go along with seven rebounds, a game-high seven assists, and a steal. 

Kopetzki also shined, pouring in 20 points on an extremely efficient shooting line of 7-of-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. The sophomore was also active in other areas, adding seven rebounds and five assists. Skeete was the only other Golden Bear in double figures with 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists. 

Meyer chipped in nine points with seven rebounds while Patterson added nine points and eight rebounds off the bench. 

ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears hold an all-time record of 9-26 against St. Cloud State, with a mark of 6-11 in games at the Gangelhoff Center. Concordia has won the last two meetings, including a 115-104 win in St. Cloud, Minn. earlier this season.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE HUSKIES
When the two teams last met in a nonconference game earlier this season on November 14, the Golden Bear offense exploded for 115 points in an 11-point win in St. Cloud, Minn.

Antwan Kimmons was sensational for the entirety of the contest, scoring 18 in the first half and exploding for 25 in the second half to finish with a career-high 43 points. The senior guard became just the third Golden Bear to top the 40-point mark in a game, joining Curt Kietzer (40 points, 1984-85) and coming within three points of Matt Cadwell's 46-point record against Upper Iowa in 2009. Kimmons was also extremely efficient, knocking down 16 of his 21 attempts (76.1%) from the field and going 10-11 from the free throw line while adding six assists, five rebounds, and a block.

The Golden Bears also shot hot as a team throughout the game, connecting on 41 of their 66 attempts (62.1%) from the field for the fifth-highest field goal percentage in team history. CSP finished the game 13-25 from beyond the arc for the 20^th-highest three-point field goal percentage in program history at 52.0%.  Concordia's 115 points were its second-most in the Division II era, trailing only the 118-point effort against Arkansas Tech in 2018.

Concordia worked out to an 11-6 lead early in the game, but the Huskies responded with a seven-point run to take their first lead at 13-11. That lead proved to be short lived as CSP quickly regained the advantage and pushed it to 13 with a 59-46 lead at halftime. The Golden Bears went 20-31 (64.52%) from the field and 9-16 (56.3%) from beyond the arc in the half while holding St. Cloud State to 16-42 (38.1%) overall.

The Bears led wire-to-wire in the second half, pushing the advantage as high as 17 points on the way to the 11-point victory. CSP went 20-31 (64.5%) in the second half, also connecting on four of nine (44.4%) three-point attempts. For the game, Concordia held a 50-44 scoring edge in the paint and a 16-12 advantage in points off turnovers after winning the turnover battle 13-11.

Ben Kopetzki matched his career high with 24 points, connecting on eight of his 16 attempts from the field and going 4-6 from beyond the arc while adding two rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

Cade Meyer logged 15 points on a perfect 6-6 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. Ian Sluice and Marcus Skeete rounded out the starters with nine and seven points, respectively.

Reid Patterson led the effort off the bench, scoring 11 points and adding five rebounds. Sean Mathieu was the only other Golden Bear on the score sheet with six points off the bench.

STAT LEADERS
The Golden Bears continue to rank highly on the conference and national statistics leaderboards in many important categories, particularly on offense.

As a team, CSP's scoring average of 88.4 points per game paces the NSIC and ranks 21st in all of Division II. Concordia ranks second in the conference in rebounding with an average of 39.67 per game and sits third with 14.9 assists per game.
 
The Golden Bears have been successful in drawing defensive contact throughout the season, ranking second in the league with an average of 23.9 free throw attempts per game.

Antwan Kimmons continues to pave the way for Concordia's explosive offense, averaging 25.5 points per game, the top mark in the NSIC and the fourth best average in all of Division II. The senior also leads the league in both assists (88) and assists per game (5.9) this season, ranking top 10 in the country in both categories. Kimmons has been more successful than anyone at getting to the charity stripe this season, leading all of Division II with 136 free throw attempts.

Marcus Skeete has been Concordia's top rebounder, pulling down an average of 7.5 per game, good for seventh most in the NSIC.

Senior forward Cade Meyer's field goal percentage of 68.6% is good for second in the conference and ninth in all of Division II so far this year.