Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul built a late 16-point second half lead before holding off a late Southwest Minnesota State rally, to earn a 76-70 victory in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball on Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
CSP, which has won three of its last five games, improves to 7-8 overall, 2-7 NSIC. SMSU dropped its third straight game and is now 8-7 overall, 3-6 NSIC. It's SMSU's first three-game losing streak since closing the 2015-16 season with three straight losses.
 
Ryan Bruggeman led SMSU with 18 points, five assists and three steals, while teammate Taylor Schafer added 13 points with three 3-pointers. Michael Lee finished with 13 points with three 3-pointers, while Nick Dufault hit a pair of 3-poitners and closed with 10 points. Braedan Hanson pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
 
The Mustangs finished the game shooting 41 percent (27 of 66) from the field, while making 11 of 31 from 3-point range. SMSU was 5 of 7 from the foul line and now has failed to shoot double-digit free throws in three straight games.
 
The Golden Bears dominated on the glass, finishing with a 42-24 rebound advantage. The Mustangs have been outrebounded by nine or more in each of its last four games.
 
Cody Carlson scored a career-high 22 points for CSP on 7 of 9 shooting. Isaiah McKay (19) and Bryndan Matthews (15) also reached double figure scoring for the Golden Bears.  
 
CSP led for much of the game and built its largest lead of the night at 67-51 with five and a half minutes left in the game, but SMSU wouldn't go away and reeled off 12 straight points to cut the deficit to 67-63 with 43 seconds remaining following a 3-pointer by Michael Lee.
 
McKay hit two free throws moments later to stop the run, before Schafer connected on a 3-pointer to trim lead to 69-66 with 36 seconds on the clock. That was as close as the Mustangs would come however as the Golden Bears made seven of eight free throws in the final 25 seconds to seal the victory.
 
The two teams played to a 13-13 tie in the opening six minutes before CSP used a 10-0 run over a six-minute span to build a 23-13 advantage with 7:48 left in the opening half.
 
CSP would maintain a double-digit lead for much of the remainder of the half before Bruggeman converted a three-point play and drilled a 3-pointer in the final minute to cut the deficit to 34-25 at halftime.
 
SMSU shot just 32 percent in the first half and was outrebounded 20-12.
 
The Mustangs would cut the Golden Bears lead to four points on two occasions, including 37-33 with 17:30 remaining following a Lee 3-pointer. But, as CSP did all night, it had an answer and rallied back with a 13-5 run to extend the lead to 50-38 at the 14:49 mark.
 
CSP would hold the double-digit lead for the next 14 minutes until SMSU's final push in the closing minutes of the contest.
 
Southwest Minnesota State wraps-up the weekend on Saturday with a 5:30 p.m. match-up at Minnesota State (11-4, 7-2 NSIC). Sioux Falls defeated MSU on Friday in Mankato, by a score of 74-46.