WINONA, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (8-6, 3-5 NSIC) dropped an 85-67 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference decision to Winona State (4-9, 3-5 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at McCown Gymnasium.

The Golden Bears were unable to recover from a dominant first half by the Warriors, who built a 50-31 advantage at the break and held off CSP's second-half push to secure the win.

Senior Reid Patterson led Concordia with a team-high 20 points, knocking down a pair of triples and going a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. It marked Patterson's third 20-plus point performance of the season. Junior Ben Kopetzki followed with 17 points, adding four rebounds and three assists. Fellow junior Jaden Wysocki added nine points on an efficient 3-of-5 shooting performance, with all three makes coming from beyond the arc.

Marcus Burks provided nine points off the bench, while Hudson Vaith contributed six points and three rebounds. Redshirt freshman Ryan Johnson impacted the game defensively with six rebounds, two steals, and a block, while Chet Kloss pulled down six rebounds, added three points, and recorded three steals and two blocks.

Winona State raced out to an early lead, scoring 16 of the game's first 20 points and steadily extending the margin throughout the opening half. The Warriors shot 54.5% from the field and led by as many as 21 in the first 20 minutes before taking a 50-31 lead into halftime. Concordia trailed by as many as 25 early in the second half, but the Golden Bears showed resilience later in the period with an 11-2 scoring burst that cut the deficit to just eight points at 72-64 with 7:06 to play. That proved to be as close as CSP would get, however, as the Warriors quickly restored their double-digit advantage on the way to the 85-67 win.

As a team, CSP shot 20-of-64 (31.3%) from the field and 8-of-35 (22.9%) from three-point range, while converting 19-of-28 free throws. The Golden Bears held a 40-36 rebounding edge, including 15 offensive boards, but were hurt by shooting struggles throughout the game. Winona State finished the game shooting 33-of-61 (54.1%) from the field and dominated the paint with a 48-20 scoring advantage in the lane.

The Warriors were led by Ryan Heise, who scored a game-high 21 points, while Tyler Mason added 18 points and nine rebounds. Aidan Bardic chipped in 12 points and six assists, and Ryan Watters added 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Golden Bears will return home next weekend to host MSU Moorhead (8-6. 5-3 NSIC) on Friday and Minnesota Crookston (1-12, 0-8 NSIC) on Saturday at the Gangelhoff Center.