Feb. 15– For the second consecutive contest, Concordia University faced a top ten nationally ranked team, this time on the road as #3 Winona State (26-1, 15-0 NSIC) dropped the Golden Bears (13-11, 7-8 NSIC) 84-59 in front of 3,341 fans at McCown Gymnasium in Winona, Minn.

Senior guard James Metcalf (Killeen, Texas) netted his fifth double-double in the last eight games with 16 points and ten rebounds to lead Concordia. Six of his rebounds came on the offensive end and he was 5-10 from the field.

The Warriors extend their NSIC winning streak to 45 with their 20th straight regular season win and are now 93-7 in their last 100 games overall.

The Golden Bears never led but stayed close early in the game when a jumper by sophomore forward Craig Heiman (Marshall, Wis.) knotted the score at ten nearly five minutes into play.

But the Warriors pulled ahead for good with an exclamation point when Jonte Flowers flushed down a dunk 14 seconds later.

Freshman forward Matt Hackl (Seymour, Wis.) buried a three-pointer that cut the margin back to one, 14-13 at the 12:53 mark.

The three-pointer ignited the home team to a 10-0 run, needing just under three minutes of action to push the lead to double-figures, 24-13 just inside the halfway point of the opening period.

After Heiman snapped the run with a three-pointer, the Warriors quickly ran off ten more unanswered points in a 3:09 span that swelled the lead to 18 points, 34-16 with 6:25 left in the first half.

With 2:49 to play, Heiman knocked down another jumper from outside the arc to cut the deficit back to 15, but this time a WSU run of 10-2 in just over two minutes of action gave the Warriors their largest lead of the half, 23 points, 47-24 before the Golden Bears used a lay-up from Metcalf with five seconds left to go into the locker room down 47-26.

In the second half the Golden Bears were unable to cut the lead any closer than 20 as Winona State led by as much as 36, an 84-48 lead with 3:16 to play in the game.

Heiman finished with 16 points, hitting 3-5 from three-point range and adding six rebounds.

The Warriors received a bulk of their scoring from three players, David Johnson, John Smith and Jonte Flowers who combined to score 63 points for WSU, led by Johnson's 23 followed by Smith's 22 and Flowers' 18.

Smith also collected eight rebounds and had five blocks while Flowers snared six steals and had three assists.

Concordia held a decisive 45-32 rebounding advantage, including 25-11 on the offensive glass but were only able to turn that into a 19-14 edge in second chance scoring and were outscored 20-12 in the paint.

Turnovers also hurt CU, committing 18 while forcing 11, leading to a 27-8 deficit in points off turnovers.

From the field, Concordia converted 31.7% (20-63) while Winona State shot at a 48.1% (26-54) clip, hitting 13 three-pointers to Concordia's seven.

Concordia will attempt to snap their two game skid and avenge a Jan. 11 71-68 loss at home to Upper Iowa when they face the Peacocks in Fayette, Iowa tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. in a crucial Northern Sun match-up.

BOX SCORE - Winona State 84, CU 59