ST. PAUL, Minn. – Despite a career day from Minnesota State star Kyreese Willingham, the Golden Bears ended a 20-game losing streak against the Mavericks with a 93-71 win at home. Willingham ended the game with a career-high 34 points on 13-22 shooting, along with five boards, two steals and a block.
 
Minnesota State (13-9, 9-5 NSIC) drops to sixth in the conference standings after the loss. CSP (16-5, 11-4 NSIC) jumps up to third place in the NSIC with the victory.
 
Antwan Kimmons was spectacular in the win for Concordia-St. Paul. The senior guard put up 37 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Golden Bears as the team shot 52.9% from the floor in the game, compared to Minnesota State's 37.3% field goal percentage.
 
Caden Kirkman got the scoring started with a layup inside after a block on the defensive end. He slammed home a dunk on a wide-open inbound play to put the Mavericks up 4-0 and Willingham made a three in transition to put MSU up by seven early. Justin Eagins found Kirkman for his third bucket of the game to put the team up eight with 15:58 left in the half. Concordia's Cade Meyer made his first field goal of the game to make it an 11-5 game before the first media timeout.
 
Antwan Kimmons and the Golden Bears proceeded to go on a 16-0 run over the next four minutes that saw three scores from Kimmons. The run was capped off by a three in the corner from Reid Patterson, which forced a Maverick timeout.
 
Out of the break, David Harmon made a layup on a breakaway for Minnesota State's first field goal in six minutes of action. Patterson hit his second corner three of the contest to put CSP up 22-13. Marcus Skeete hit the fourth Golden Bear three-pointer of the first half for his first basket. Willingham made a strong drive to the rack for a nice layup and sunk a three from the top of the key to cut the deficit to single digits. Concordia-St. Paul then scored six quick points to take a 13-point lead with 4:16 left in the first half. Harmon sunk a three, then Willingham found Eagins wide open under the rim for an easy lay-in to cut the deficit to single digits. Willingham euro-stepped to a fast-break bucket which made it a six-point game, but Kimmons made his sixth basket in 10 first-half attempts to give Concordia-St. Paul a 39-31 at the end of the half.
 
The Mavericks made one-third of their shot attempts in the first half. The team's four blocks and six steals kept it close after 20 minutes, as the Golden Bears shot 45.5% from the field in the first and made 5-10 from beyond the arc.
 
Willingham led the Mavericks with 14 points on 6-9 shooting in the first half. He ended the period with one rebound, one assist, one steal and one blocked shot. Kirkman had eight points and seven boards in the first 20 minutes, as well as a block.
 
Kimmons had 14 first-half points. Meyer had nine in the first and Skeete, the team's leading scorer, had eight points.
 
After some back-and-forth hoops without a score, Kirkman made a layup off a pretty pass from Eagins. Skeete made a three-pointer and a driving and-one layup for a lightning-fast 6-0 run for the Golden Bears. A great move by Kimmons led to another layup for CSP, but Willingham ended the big run with a pair of free throw makes. Ben Kopetzki made his second three of the half as the home team continued their white-hot start to the second half to go up 52-35. Willingham responded with a three of his own on the other end, but Meyer threw down a dunk to put the home team up by 16 with 15 minutes left in regulation.
 
For every basket the Mavericks made, the Golden Bears had the perfect response. Eagins had a couple of makes on offense, but both times CSP responded with big scores on the other end to negate the effort. Harmon then scored on a floater with great touch off the glass, but Skeete immediately sunk a deep three and Kimmons made a layup to put the Golden Bears up 64-45 with 12 minutes remaining.
 
Minnesota State attempted to grasp onto any momentum it could get. Kirkman corralled a Maverick miss and put it up for a layup to get himself to 12 points on the day.  Willingham muscled in a layup after a spin move opened up the lane, then, after a CSP make on defense, Kirkman made a layup on Eagins' seventh assist of the game. Then, Willingham made a pull-up jumper.
 
Unfortunately, the Golden Bears were not to be denied. Kimmons grabbed a defensive rebound after a huge block, then flew down the court for a one-hand slam to put the Golden Bears up 20. Willingham made a jumper, then stole the ball and finished with a layup in transition, but Kimmons made an and-one layup to reach 27 points on the evening. After another CSP score, Willingham sunk back-to-back threes to carry the Maverick offense, but Kimmons made another and-one layup to hold off the opposing team. Opsahl sunk a three off another Eagins assist to cut the deficit to 19 with five minutes remaining.
 
Kimmons scored five points following an MSU timeout, which iced the game for the home team. The Golden Bears snapped a 20-game losing streak against Minnesota State, as the team closed out the game by a score of 93-71.
 
MSU shot just 37.3% from the field (28-75 FG) and made 7-33 from three-point range (21.2% 3P). The team struggled from the charity stripe, making 8-15 from the free throw line (53.3% FT).
 
CSP shot the lights out against the Mavericks, making 52.9% of its field goal attempts and an outstanding 10-17 from three-point range (58.8% 3P). The home team outrebounded MSU 51-34 and outscored the team 54-40 in the second half.
 
Willingham had a career day, as he put up a personal best 34 points on 13-22 shooting. He made five threes and grabbed five rebounds. Defensively, Willingham had two steals and one block. Kirkman ended with a 14-point-10-rebound double-double. He had one steal and one blocked shot, also.
 
Kimmons for CSP was fantastic. He ended the game with 37 points, seven rebounds, six assists and one steal. Skeete was also great for the team, as he recorded a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. He also dished out five assists. Meyer tallied 14 points in the game. Both Kopetzki and Patterson scored eight a-piece for the Golden Bears.
 
Minnesota State is back at home on Saturday to kick off the month of February. On February 1, the Mavericks host Winona State (15-6, 10-5 NSIC) in the Taylor Center at 1:00 p.m. for the second matchup of the season between the two teams. The Warriors took game one in Winona, 88-75, back in late December.