DULUTH, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (13-7, 8-6 NSIC) saw its five-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday evening as it fell to Minnesota Duluth (12-8, 8-6 NSIC) 71-61 at Romano Gymnasium.
Senior
Sam West led the way for CSP, scoring 12 points and adding six rebounds, five steals, and four assists, leading the team in each category.
Ben Kopetzki and
Jaden Wysocki added 10 points each for the Golden Bears, while
Owen Carlson and
Chet Kloss rounded out CSP's starting five with nine and four points, respectively.
Ryan Johnson led the effort off the bench with 10 points, and
Hudson Vaith rounded out the score sheet with six points.
In a back-and-forth first half that contained three ties and 10 lead changes, Concordia looked to be in control late as it used a 12-3 scoring burst to take a 31-24 lead with just over three minutes remaining. The Golden Bears went cold at that point, with UMD putting together an 8-0 scoring run of its own, capped off by a buzzer-beating three pointer, to take a 32-31 lead into the break.
The Bulldogs carried that momentum into the opening minutes of the second half, scoring eight unanswered after halftime to take a nine-point lead at 40-31. The UMD lead ballooned as high as 16 when the Bulldogs led 56-40 with 10:47 remaining. The Golden Bears found a spark and pulled themselves back into the game quickly from there, going on a 17-7 scoring run to cut the deficit to just four points at 61-57 with 5:51 to play. That proved to be as close as Concordia would get, as the Bulldogs closed the game on an 8-2 run to secure the 10-point win.
The Golden Bears posted a 21-of-54 (38.9%) shooting performance from the field and an 11-of-28 (39.3%) line from beyond the arc, while UMD was 26-of-54 (48.1%) overall and 9-of-26 (35.6%) from deep. The Bulldogs also outrebounded the Bears 37-31, including a 29-23 edge in defensive rebounds.
The Bulldogs were led by sophomore Kole Hanson with a game-high 28 points, while junior Nick Katona added 18 points on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting performance.
The Golden Bears will begin a four-game homestand next weekend, hosting Minot State (8-12, 5-9 NSIC) on Friday and UMary (5-15, 3-11 NSIC) on Saturday at the Gangelhoff Center.
