MANKATO DEFEATED THE ST PAUL CONCORDIA GOLDEN BEARS 76-71

The Concordia University men's basketball team (6-9, 4-4 NSIC) was unable to hold a 13 point second half lead as ninth-ranked Minnesota State University, Mankato (15-3, 6-2 NSIC) came back and defeated the host Golden Bears 76-71 on Friday evening at the Gangelhoff Center. Minnesota State used a 9-0 run over a two and a half minutes down the stretch to tie the score at 62.

From there the game would see three lead changes.

Minnesota State, whose only lead was at 2-0 on the first possession, finally reclaimed the lead when Jadee Jones drained a jumper with 3:25 to play to put the Mavericks ahead 66-65. Jones finished with a game-high and season-high 21 points, shooting an impressive 8-9 from the floor including draining all five of his three-pointers. He also had six assists off the bench.

CU's scoring leader, junior Craig Heiman (Marshall, Wis.), droved hard through the lane and converted with authority. The second leading scorer in the NSIC poured in 18 points and had six rebounds on the evening. He did his damage in just 20 minutes as he was limited due to foul trouble throughout.

The teams traded baskets on the next two possessions but it was Minnesota State's leading scorer, Jake Morrow, who came through with a fastbreak layup to put the Mavericks up three, 70-67. Morrow missed his first seven field goals and was scoreless for the first 35-plus minutes of the game. He finished with six points despite averaging over 17 per contest heading into the game. He was just 2-10 from the floor.

After the Mavericks took the three point lead, they never relinquished it and converted all four out of their five free throws down the stretch.

After MSU started with the first points of the game, a layup by Mitch Gosson, the Golden Bears hit a trio of three-pointers, two by Heiman with one by sophomore Matt Hackl (Seymour, Wis.) sandwiched in between to build a 9-3 lead just over two minutes into play.

As Concordia attempted to build momentum early, MSU cut into the lead when Jones hit a three-pointer to cut the gap to 16-12 with 12:24 in the half. From there, CU marched to eight straight points with back-to-back three-pointers from senior Matt Cadwell (St. Paul, Minn.) along with a jumper by sophomore Andrew Kuderer (Eden Prairie, Minn.).

Concordia's run would explode to a 15-4 spurt when they led 31-16 before Harry Boyce finally snapped the spell at the 5:21 mark of the half.

Minnesota State cut the gap all the way to a six point margin, 35-29 at the break. Jones scored eight consecutive points for Minnesota State and had 11 in the first half off the bench in as many minutes.

Concordia's first half defense was impressive as they held the ninth-ranked Mavericks to a 31.3% (10-32) half of shoooting while hitting 5-10 from long range on the offensive end.

In the second half, MSU executed much better against the host team, firing at a 57.6% (19-33) rate with Concordia shooting 45.2% (14-31).

Concordia received balanced scoring with four players in double-figures with a fifth scoring nine. Junior Mike Cunningham (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Hackl each scored 13 points with junior Sammy Ricks (St. Paul, Minn.) adding 10. Cadwell scored nine off the bench.

The two teams were nearly even on the boards with MSU outrebounding CU 39-37. Travis Nelson of Minnesota State led all players with 10 rebounds while scoring 20 points and dishing four assists while Boyce had eight rebounds and Gosson collected seven. For CU, Cunningham led the team with eight rebounds while four others had four or more.

It was a clean game, with only 18 total turnovers and 39 combined assists. MSU had 20 assists and committed just seven turnovers while CU had 19 assists and 11 turnovers. Five Golden Bears had at least three assists with Cunningham and junior Thomas Bassett (Denison, Iowa) each dishing four. Bassett made up for his 0-7 shooting performance with the four assists while adding five rebounds and two blocks in just 17 minutes of action.

From behind the arc, Jones hit all five of Minnesota State's three-pointers and didn't miss any while the rest of the Mavericks were 0-7 including Morrow's 0-6 effort. Concordia had balanced three-point shooting led by Hackl's 3-3 performance while Cadwell and Heiman were each 2-5 from long range.

It was another close loss for Concordia in what has come to define their 6-9 season record. CU has now lost by five points or less to #9 Minnesota State (71-76), Minnesota Duluth (79-84), #3 St. Thomas (69-72, OT), San Francisco State (67-71) and Georgia State (63-67) with a six point loss to CSU Monterey Bay (80-86) mixed in.

Before the game, Concordia honored Heiman with a commemorative 1,000 point ball. He became the 14th member of the 1,000 point club in Concordia's 42 years of men's basketball with a 28 point performance in a win over Northwestern on December 18.

With a 4-4 record in league play, Concordia faces another pivotal moment tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. when they host Southwest Minnesota State (5-3) who defeated St. Cloud State handily on the road this evening.