Melbourne, Fla.- Georgian Court University men's basketball, playing its first-ever competition in the Sunshine State, took on Concordia University-St. Paul Friday afternoon in the opener of the Florida Tech Thanksgiving Tournament. The Golden Bears held off GCU, 85-69, despite four Lions reaching double-digits in the scoring column.

With the score tied at 14-all at the 12:16 mark of the first half, Georgian Court ran off a 15-6 run to develop a nine-point lead (29-20) with 4:20 to go before the break. Concordia, not to be outdone, responded with a 13-4 counterstrike to knot the game at 33 apiece. A subsequent 6-0 spurt over the final 1:14 put the Golden Bears ahead, 39-33, going into halftime.

Down by nine (42-33) early in the second stanza (19:32), the Lions tore into the deficit with a mighty bite as Georgian Court cut the CSP lead to just one (47-46) after a 14-4 attack. After a Milos Djeric three-pointer kept GCU within one (50-49) at 14:35, the Golden Bears glowed by outscoring its foe, 35-20, the rest of the way, which included a high-water mark of 18 (85-67) with just 1:49 remaining.

Isaiah McKay (Sr.-Brooklyn Park, Minn.) topped the victors with 23 points and nine assists in the win, while Hayden Baughman (Fr.-Cornell, Wisc.) drained seven three-pointers for his 21 points. Bryndan Matthews (Sr.-Eagan, Minn.) registered a double-double of 19 points and 11 boards. Lee Higgins (So.-Chicago, Ill.) poured in 11 points for Concordia (4-0).

For the Lions, Caleb Bowser led the way with 16 points while Arthur Mitchell and Matt Ringel each connected on 12 points apiece. Justin Figueroa followed with 10 points of his own.

GCU (1-5) will now take on the University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon (3-1) Sunday at 1:30 p.m. after the Vaqueros (3-1) fell to the host-Panthers later in the day, 84-59. Florida Tech (3-1) takes on Concordia (4-0) at 4pm in the championship round.