CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (21-7, 16-6 NSIC) secured a share of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Regular Season Championship for the first time in program history on Saturday afternoon with an 88-73 win over Minnesota Crookston (5-23, 4-18 NSIC).
The Golden Bears, who have never finished above third place in the NSIC regular season standings until now, will wrap up the regular season with 21 wins, the most in a regular season in program history and tied for the most overall wins with the 2006-07 squad that finished 21-8 overall.
Concordia's first regular season NSIC title is a shared title, with Southwest Minnesota State also finishing 16-6 in conference play. The Golden Bears won the seeding tiebreaker with the Mustangs based on the conference's point rating system, securing the top overall seed in the upcoming NSIC Tournament and a first-round bye that will automatically advance CSP to the quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Golden Bears were led by sophomore guard
Ben Kopetzki in the win, who finished with a career-high 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go along with three assists, three steals, and a rebound.
Senior guard
Antwan Kimmons logged his 17
th game of the season with 20 or more points, scoring 22 on 8-of-20 shooting while adding a game-leading six assists, a block, a steal, and a rebound.
The game marked an important career milestone for
Marcus Skeete, who broke the CSP records for both games played (118) and games started (110). The senior swingman was a key piece in the victory, logging his seventh double-double of the season with 16 points and 17 rebounds. Skeete knocked down six of his 10 attempts from the field and was 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, also adding three assists, a block, and a steal. Skeete's 17 rebounds are tied for the most in a single game in school history, and are the most in a game by a Concordia player in the Division II era.
Chet Kloss was the only other Golden Bear in double figures, scoring a season-high 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting while pulling down seven rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.
CSP held a narrow lead for the first few minutes of the game, but Minnesota Crookston jumped on top for what proved to be the first and only time at 15-14 with 13:30 on the clock in the opening half. The Golden Eagles managed to tie the game three more times at 25, 31, and 34, but CSP regained the lead on each occasion, eventually carrying a 43-39 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Concordia wasted no time expanding its advantage early in the second half, opening the half on an 11-0 scoring run to make it a 15-point game just over two minutes in. The lead went on to peak at 21 points on two separate occasions throughout the half before CSP walked away with the 15-point victory.
As a team, Concordia shot 33-of-73 (45.2%) from the field and 10-of-28 (35.7%) from beyond the arc while Minnesota Crookston finished 26-of-63 (41.3%) overall and 5-of-17 (29.4%) from deep. The Golden Bears outrebounded the Golden Eagles 46-35 in the game and won the battle on the offensive glass by a margin of 13-6, leading to a 19-5 advantage in second chance points for CSP.
Reid Grant led the Golden Eagles with 21 points, six rebounds, and six assists while Jordan Mitchell had 19 points and four rebounds for UMC.
The top-seeded Golden Bears will open the NSIC Tournament on either Saturday, March 1 or Sunday, March 2 in Sioux Falls, S.D. and will await the results of the first-round games on Wednesday, February 26 to find out who their opponent will be.
