WAYNE, Neb. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (18-6, 13-5 NSIC) wrapped up a perfect week with a 77-60 drubbing of Wayne State (14-10, 8-10 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium.
The win pushed Concordia's overall win total to 18 so far this season, marking just the sixth season in program history and the fourth in the Division II era with 18 or more wins. It is the fastest Concordia has ever reached 18 wins in a season, narrowly outpacing the 2006-07 team that went 21-8 and notched its 18
th win on February 10. CSP's 13 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference wins are tied for the second most in a season in program history, with the 2014-15 squad's conference record of 14-8 being the only better mark.
The win also secured Concordia's season sweep of the Wildcats, with CSP also defeating WSC 86-79 at the Gangelhoff Center in December. The Golden Bears now hold a 22-31 all-time record against Wayne State, with Concordia winning three of the last four meetings.
After Wayne State took its first and only lead of the game at 4-2, the Golden Bears dominated the rest of the half, eventually carrying a 46-28 advantage into the intermission. The lead continued to swell early in the second half, going as high as 28 before the Golden Bears secured the 17-point win.
Senior guard
Antwan Kimmons led all players in scoring with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, also adding eight rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Kimmons' 22 points pushed his season total to 600, breaking his own school record of 591 set in the 2022-23 season.
Senior forward
Cade Meyer logged his second straight double-double, scoring 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting while pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Making just his second start of the season, junior
Reid Patterson made the most of his opportunity with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc while adding four rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
The Wildcats jumped on top at 4-2 less than a minute into the game, but that proved to be Wayne State's only lead of the afternoon with Concordia going on a 10-2 run from there to stake a 12-6 lead just over three minutes later. The Wildcats hung close with the Golden Bears for a while and only trailed by three at 22-19 near the midpoint of the first half, but an 18-2 scoring surge by Concordia lasting nearly six minutes blew the game open as CSP would go on to take a 46-28 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Concordia played well on both ends of the floor in the opening half, going 17-of-29 (58.6%) from the field and 6-of-12 (50%) from beyond the arc while limiting the Wildcats to just 10-of-34 (29.4%) from the field and 2-of-9 (22.2%) from deep. CSP also outrebounded WSC 23-13 in the half and had nine assists to Wayne State's three.
CSP's lead continued to balloon early in the second half, peaking at 28 with a 63-35 advantage with 12:29 on the clock. The lead never dipped below 14 points from that point, with Concordia cruising to a comfortable 77-60 win.
As a unit, the Golden Bears knocked down 28 of their 61 attempts from the field (45.9%) in the game and were 8-of-20 (40%) from beyond the arc while the Wildcats finished 23-of-68 (33.8%) overall and just 3-of-17 (17.6%) from deep. Concordia's bench provided a significant advantage, outscoring Wayne State's bench 10-0 with five points from
Chet Kloss, three from
Will Boser, and two from
Hudson Vaith.
The Wildcats were led by JJ Ferrin with 15 points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
The Golden Bears will play their final home games of the regular season next weekend, hosting Northern State (2-22, 1-17 NSIC) on Friday and MSU Moorhead (16-8, 11-7 NSIC) on Saturday for senior day.
