Nolen leads Minnesota past Concordia-St.Paul 66-51

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -Al Nolen had 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting to lead Minnesota to a season-opening 76-51 victory over Division II Concordia-St. Paul on Friday.

Nolen added six assists and six rebounds, another steady performance by the sophomore point guard on a night when his teammates mostly failed to find a rhythm. Nolen went 3-for-5 from 3-point range; the rest of the Gophers shot just 3-for-18 from behind the arc.

Lawrence Westbrook added 13 points for Minnesota.

Craig Heiman, who led the Northern Sun conference in scoring last season, had 26 points for the Golden Bears. They shot only 29.6 percent from the field.

This was part of the NABC Classic, a four-team round-robin competition hosted by Minnesota over three nights. Bowling Green topped Georgia State 77-76 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Joe Jakubowski in overtime in the first game at Williams Arena.