st. Paul, minn. - the golden bears fell behind by as much as 27 points in the first half but persisted in completing a comeback, taking a four point lead late in the second half before eventually falling in overtime at the hands of #24 winona state. Concordia university (2-4, 0-2 nsic) has now lost four straight after the 86-80 loss to the warriors, who improve to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the nsic. Senior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) had 29 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort leaving him just 14 points shy of the school's career scoring record. box score

despite the large first half deficit the golden bears didn't exactly play poorly so much as the warriors just couldn't miss. In the first half, they dropped in 10 three-pointers at a 66.7% clip while shooting the same pct. From the field as they rallied for 49 points. Concordia, meanwhile, came on strong late in the half to shoot 43.3% from the field and 44.4% from three.

but in the second half, concordia shot 53.1% while holding wsu to just 37.5% shooting from the field. The warriors made just one of eight from downtown while concordia nailed five of their 10 three's by comparison.

in overtime, cu made just two of eight from the floor while wsu made three of their five field goals. Cu missed all four of their three's while winona knocked down their only long range attempt.

a bucket by senior guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) with three seconds to play in the half cut the deficit back to 17 to cap a 12-2 run to end the half strong for concordia. Cunningham finished with 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in the game.

prior to the run, though, it was all winona state and david johnson, who lit up the golden bears for 21 points on 8-9 shooting including 4-4 from three-point range. He helped them build a 47-20 lead with just over five minutes to play in the half. Wsu took an 18-14 lead with 13:44 on the clock to their largest lead with a 29-6 scoring blitz that spanned nearly nine minutes of action.

but rarely do teams carry that kind of shooting for 40 full minutes and concordia kept chipping away in the second half.

they cut the deficit down to eight, 54-46, just over four minutes into the half.

it was a complete 180 that the golden bears pulled. After their 20-47 first half deficit, concordia ralled for a 26-7 run over their own in just under nine minutes of game action that included a 15 minute halftime break for each club.

they cut the lead to six, 58-52, at 11:35 as the warriors continued to defend their lead fiercely, moving it back to 10 points at the 9:37 mark.

that's when concordia took the next step, scoring the next eight points with a three-pointer by junior andrew kuderer (eden prairie, minn.), a steal and layup by senior guard sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) and a three-pointer by junior forward matt hackl (seymour, wis.). The three for kuderer was his only contribution offensively while hackl hit two three's in the second half and ricks scored 15 with five rebounds and four steals.

but erasing a 27 point gap also features the mental barrier that a team must clear when formally getting back into the game, as did concordia. Winona state tried to thwart that by answering with the next four points, building the lead back to six.

concordia's response was to dump the ball down low as sophomore post brent barz (johnston, iowa) answered with the next four points for cu with ricks finishing in the lane to tie the score at 66 at the 3:30 mark. Barz completed his second double-double with 12 points and 13 boards, seven coming on the offensive end while also blocking three shots in a season-high 37 minutes.

the team's traded buckets and with a 68-all tie, concordia's defense held strong again, with jon walburg missing a jumper and heiman rebounding.

concordia now had the ball with a chance to take their first lead with under two minutes to play and ricks provided senior leadership by popping a jumper with 1:58 to play.

on wsu's possession, ben fischer committed an offensive foul 30 feet from the basket, turning it over to cu. Heiman responded by charging hard to the basket and finishing in the lane to give concordia a four point edge, 72-68 with 1:26 to play.

johnson finally woke up, at the wrong time for the host golden bears, connecting on a three with 59 seconds to play. It was winona state's only made three-pointer in eight second half attempts and it came in a clutch situation for the warriors, trimming the lead to one point.

with the ball, concordia went back to the 5-11 ricks, who plays a fearless style despite his slight stature, driving hard to the lane and pulling up for a jumper to give cu a three-point lead, 74-71 with 28 seconds to play.

with ball and scrambling for an open look, johnson finally pulled up blanket by cunningham, who was unable to control his leap as he fell into johnson to get whistled for the foul, sending one of the best pure shooters in the league to the line. Johnson converted all three, tying the game at 74.

concordia had the last chance in regulation, going back to the clutch performance of ricks, whose pull-up jumper from just inside the arc off the left elbow fell short with two seconds to play, sending the game to overtime.

in the overtime, winona state scored the first six points capped off by a steal and lay-up by fischer, who was fouled intentionally by hackl as he converted the four-point play.

they extended the lead to seven with a three-pointer by humphrey at just under three minutes to play.

concordia fought back again, cutting the lead to three with a 4-0 spurt after cunningham free throws and another heiman jumper in the lane at 1:24. But they wouldn't score again in the final 1:24 of the contest as the warriors were able to fend off concordia.

heiman's 29 points were four shy of johnson's game-high 33 on 10-17 shooting that included 5-8 from three-point range and 8-11 at the line. But heiman and barz rebounding prowess allowed concordia to reach the 40 mark for the sixth time in as many games this season, grabbing 10 more boards than wsu. Cu also enjoyed a 19-7 edge on the offensive glass leading to a 19-9 margin in second chance scoring.

concordia drops their fourth straight contest, this time in dramatic fashion. They return to league play next weekend when they hit the road to take on minnesota crookston and msu moorhead on friday, dec. 11 and saturday, dec. 12 for 8:00 p.m. Tip-offs.

heiman will look to surpass jeff chamblerain's (1993-97) school record 1,443 points next weekend. Heiman sits at 1,429 becoming the second player in school history to reach the 1,400 mark.