Box Score Kenosha, Wis.—It was a familiar opponent for the Golden Eagles men's basketball team, who traveled to Kenosha, Wis., for a date with Concordia-St. Paul in the inaugural Parkside Invitational presented by HARIBO.
 
Playing in their first game of the 2019 season and with a coach who was named interim coach less than 24 hours ago, the Golden Bears got off to a quick start.
 
Minnesota Crookston used huge plays down the stretch to escape with a wild 78-76 victory over NSIC foe Concordia-St. Paul.
 
Jordan Coblin made his first three, three point attempts to give the Golden Bears a quick 9-0 run, which forced a Golden Eagle timeout.
 
The Golden Eagles got on the board five minutes into the game with a long two from the baseline from Harrison Cleary (Sr., G, Oak Creek, Wis.).
 
CSP would hit back-to-back three's to take their largest lead of the game at 15-2.
 
Helped by a Brian Sitzmann (R-So., G, Savage, Minn.) three, the Golden Eagles scored six in a row to cut the Golden Bear lead to just seven at 15-8.
 
The Golden Bears would eventually cool down and the Golden Eagles would get going. Minnesota Crookston trailed 24-16, but Minnesota Crookston would go on a 14-8 run, highlighted by a Cleary old fashioned three and Tyrese Shines (Fr., G, La Grange, Ill.) scoring his first two points of his Golden Eagle career with a putback to tie the game at 30.
 
Noah Kannegiesser would finish up his outstanding first half with a layup right before the halftime buzzer to give the Golden Bears a two point lead at halftime, 32-30.
 
Cleary led the way in the first half with 16 points, followed by Sitzmann and Ben Juhl (Jr., G, Clive, Iowa) with five points each.
 
The Golden Bears scored the first five points of the second half to stretch their lead to seven at 37-30.
 
Minnesota Crookston would start to hit the shots that wouldn't fall for them in the first half. Javier Nicolau (Sr., C, Castellon, Spain) gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game after a thunderous dunk on a nice feed from Cleary.
 
Minnesota Crookston would have their largest lead of the game at 7, 57-50. CSP would go on an 8-0 run to take a one point lead. Since that point, neither team had a lead of larger than three.
 
Nicolau would give the Golden Eagles a 74-73 lead after going one for two from the free throw line. The Golden Eagles would get a stop on defense and had the biggest possession of the game on their next offensive possession.
 
After a Juhl miss, Nicolau grabbed an offensive rebound, then kicked it out to Sitzmann for a huge three to give the Golden Eagles a 77-73 lead with 1:07 left in the ballgame.
 
The Golden Eagles had to hold off a last second shot at the buzzer to defeat Concordia-St. Paul 78-76, to improve to 2-1.
 
Three Golden Eagles were in double-figures. Cleary had 35, while Sitzmann and Juhl finished with 20 and 14, respectively.
 
Minnesota Crookston is back in action tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m., against the winner of Hillsdale and Wisconsin-Parkside in the championship of the Parkside Invitational present by HARIBO.