ST. PAUL, MN – Brock Heffner continued his torrid scoring pace and Gerald Gittens provided additional scoring punch for the University of Mary men's basketball team in an 84-76 loss at Concordia-St. Paul. Heffner and Gittens combined for 48 points in a Northern Sun game that featured ten ties and seven lead changes.
 
Heffner led the Marauders for a third straight game with 26 points. He had scored 36 and 19 in his last two outings. The sophomore forward also added seven rebounds and two blocks in 33 minutes of play. Doing much of his damage inside, he went to the free throw line 16 times and made 12. The Marauders outscored the Golden Bears 42-26 in the paint and 10-2 on second chance points.
 
Gittens finished the night with 22 points, six rebounds and two steals. The junior guard was 8-for-16 from the floor and was 6-for-7 at the line. This is the third time he's scored over 20 points in a game.
 
A rugged contest, the two teams combined to shoot 67 free throws. The Marauders made 24-of-32 at the line while the Golden Bears finished 26-of-35.
 
UMary shot 42.6% from the floor while CSP made 43.6% from the floor. The Marauders were unable to connect from behind the arc, missing all 12 trey attempts while the Golden Bears were 10-of-26. This was the first time UMary failed to make a 3-pointer in a game since finishing 0-for-12 at Concordia-St. Paul on February 8, 2008.
 
Marcus Skeete had a game-high 27 points for CSP.
 
Ty Rogers sent the Marauders into intermission with a 37-36 lead on a slam dunk in the closing seconds. The Golden Bears regained the lead out of the chute in the second half with a 3-ball and the Marauders played from behind the remainder of the game. UMary pulled even four times – the last at 45-45 on an Alex Mattes jumper in the paint – but could never pull ahead.
 
Down as many as 11, a Gittens layup closed the gap to 66-64 with 3:35 to play but the Golden Bears (8-7, 3-6 NSIC) responded to Marauders (6-8, 1-7 NSIC) scores the remainder of the night to hold on to the win.
 
The Marauders next open a 4-game home stand when UMary hosts Augustana on Friday, January 12. Game time is 5:30 pm at the McDowell Activity Center.
 
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