SAINT PAUL, Minn. - The Winona State men's basketball team fell to 1-2 overall (0-1 NSIC) in their first NSIC game of the 2025-26 season.
CSP jumped out to a red-hot start scoring the first 10 points of the game. The Warriors were unable to catch up as the Golden Bears Ben Kopetzki led CSP to a 83-58 win behind his 29-point outing.
How it Happened:
After trailing 10-0, Winona State cut the lead to 13-7 behind layups from
Ryan Heise and
Gavyn Hurley with a three-point jumper from
Tyler Mason with 14:33 left in the first half. The Golden Bears grew their lead back to 24-11 before
Aidan Bardic knocked in a pair of free throws to give CSP a 24-13 lead with 8:58 remaining in the first frame. Concordia-St. Paul got to out to their biggest lead of the half at 44-20 behind a Riley Patterson three-pointer with 1:58 left in the first half.
Connor Roffers and
Jackson Hayes hit back-to-back buckets to close out the half with a 47-24 CSP lead.
Hayes scored a layup assisted by Tyler Borrowski to tighten the Golden Bears lead to 59-41 with 13:17 remaining in the contest. Borrowski got in the scoring column with a three-ball to make it 62-46 CSP with 10:20 to play. Bardic scored four points in a row on a pair of free throws and a layup, bringing the deficit back down to 18 at 70-52 with 5:11 left in the game. Kopetzki knocked home a three-pointer followed by a driving layup to balloon the CSP lead to 25 points at 77-52 going into the final 3:30 of the contest. The Golden Bears Patrick Bath hit a couple of free throws to make the final score 83-58 CSP.
Statistical Comparison
- The Warriors were 21-of-54 (38.9%) from the field while the Golden Bears went 31-of-62 (50.0%) in the win.
- WSU won the battle on the boards grabbing 36 rebounds compared to the Golden Bears 31.
- Winona State was three-of-19 (15.8%) from three-point land with Concordia-St. Paul going 11-of-25 (44.0%).
- From the free throw line, WSU had a solid outing going 13-of-14 (92.9%) while CSP shot 10-of-13 (76.9 %) from the charity strip.
- Alessandro Tonelli led a trio of Warriors in double figures with a season-high 14 points on five-of-10 shooting from the field.
- Bardic chipped in 11 points while going seven-of-seven from the free throw line.
- Hurley registered 10 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field while leading the Warriors with eight rebounds.
- Concordia-St. Paul was led by Kopetzki who had a game-high 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field in the win.
- Jaden Wysocki added 15 points while Chet Kloss led the Golden Bears with nine rebounds.
- Sam West dished out seven assists in the NSIC opener.
Winona State will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin to play UW-Parkside on Saturday, November 22 at 3:00pm.
