MILWAUKEE - Concordia-St. Paul shot close to 70 percent in the first half in building a big lead in claiming a 69-55 victory over the Milwaukee men's basketball team Friday night at UWM Panther Arena.
 
The Panthers (2-1) trailed by 22 points at the half to the Golden Bears and could never find their way back into the game, their first in this weekend's Black & Gold Shootout.
 
"First, give credit to Concordia," head coach Pat Baldwin said. "They came in here, they were extremely prepared for us and they did a great job. When you make shots – which they did, and they did early – it gives you confidence and they certainly rode with that. And we had no way to stem the tide."
 
August Haas led Milwaukee with 13 points. Brock Stull was the only other player in double-figures with 12. Brett Prahl added a career-high 11 rebounds.
 
The team finished under 30 percent from the floor overall (18-of-61), converting just five three's on 33 attempts on the evening.
 
"We had open looks in the first half," Baldwin said. "And we just couldn't shoot the basketball tonight. That's where the problem was. Defensively, we need to correct some things and get a lot better, because they took advantage of some things that we were trying to take away but didn't do a good job."
 
Bryndan Matthews (16 of 20) and Cody Carslon (14 of 18) scored 30 of their combined 38 points in a stunning first half that saw the Golden Bears connect on 69.2 percent (18-of-26) of their shots from the floor, building what turned out to be an insurmountable lead by intermission.
 
The Panthers came full steam out of the locker room at half, scoring 11 of the first 13 points of the frame to cut the lead to 13 at 49-36. However, that was as close as they would get the rest of the way, with an 8-0 spurt pushing the advantage back to 21 at 57-36 with just under 13 minutes to play.
 
The contest started late, due to the triple-overtime Elon victory over FIU, 95-87, that was played beforehand. A court delay also helped push the start close to over an hour behind.
 
The first half was ugly. The Golden Bears used an early 14-0 run to turn an early UWM lead into a 19-11 advantage and then continued to hit shot after shot. Too many early turnovers hurt and cold shooting from three-point range – finishing 2-of-18 in the first 20 minutes – doomed the Panthers in the first half.
 
Concordia never stepped off the gas pedal, using a 21-3 blitz to end the half, hitting a 3 at the buzzer to lead by 22, at 47-25, at halftime.
 
Milwaukee is right back at it, tipping off against FIU Saturday at UWM Panther Arena, starting at 5:30 p.m.