PHOTO GALLERY (Justin Oakman Photography) | PHOTO GALLERY (Jarrin Williams)

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (2-11, 0-9 NSIC) added a 10th loss by 10 points or less with a 79-73 overtime loss to Northern State (12-4, 7-2) in NSIC play at Gangelhoff Center on Saturday evening.

Sophomore guard Cole Olstad (Elgin, Minn.) led Concordia with a career-high 26 points and added five rebounds. He scored all eight points for the Golden Bears in overtime but Concordia didn't have a chance to tie or go-ahead for nearly the entire OT period.

CU Men's Basketball vs. Northern State 1.12.2013 - Images by Justin Oakman

The Wolves' Dustin Tetzlaff scored the overtime period's first four points in just over a minute of play as Northern State started overtime on a 6-0 run. Concordia had the deficit cut to two points, 71-69 with 1:18 to play and 75-73 with nine seconds left. They also had it cut to three at 74-71 with 24 seconds to play but the Wolves made 7-of-10 in overtime to seal the game.

After committing just one turnover in the first half, and only five in the second half, the Golden Bears were forced into three turnovers in the first two-plus minutes of overtime which aided Northern State taking the six point lead. Concordia finished with 10 turnovers in the game, as did Northern State.

Concordia had a chance to win the game outright at the end of regulation, but a jumper from inside the arc and outside the elbow by sophomore Terez VanPelt (Osseo, Minn.) softly rimmed out. VanPelt scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half after being limited to just two shots in the first half (0-2).

Concordia led for a decent amount of the first half thanks in part to playing with just one turnover. The Golden Bears led by as many as seven, 24-17, with just over six and a half minutes to play in the half before Northern State tied the game at 26. Concordia regained the lead going into the break, 33-28.

Olstad scored 12 of his game-high 26 points in the first half while freshman Shea Mandli (Eagan, Minn.) was 4-of-5 from the floor for eight points. He'd finish with 10 for the game, adding seven rebounds. Senior guard Zach Towle (Maplewood, Minn.) provided seven key minutes off the bench, connecting for five points and a pair of rebounds.

Defensively, Concordia limited reigning NSIC Player of the Week and NSU scoring leader Collin Pryor to just two shots, two points, four rebounds and three turnovers. But his front court mate, Tetzlaff, was freed up for 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting with five rebounds.

Tetzlaff finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 9-of-13. Pryor had a resurgence in the second half and finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for the night but shot just 5-of-15.

Concordia maintained the upper hand into the second half, pulling up by its largest margin of the evening at 38-30 when VanPelt connected for his first made field goal of the game, a three-pointer.

With the margin remaining in single-digits, Concordia pushed it back to a seven point lead, 47-40 when junior Cordell Smith (Mequon, Wis. ) (Mequon, Wis.) buried a three-pointer with just under 12 minutes to play.

The Wolves took control from there, though, going on an 18-6 scoring run covering over six minutes of action to claim a 58-53 lead with just over five and a half minutes to play.

The run was snapped out of a timeout when VanPelt was fouled on a three-point attempt, connecting on all three free throws to narrow the margin to 58-56.

The game remained close down the stretch when senior Isaiah Thomas (Fridley, Minn.) converted a three-pointer to tie the game at 65 with just over two minutes. It was Thomas' first made three-pointer of the game as he finished with seven points, six rebounds and three assists.

Neither team was able to score the rest of the way, with both squads committing rare turnovers leaving the ball in Concordia's hands with 18.3 seconds to play, setting up the VanPelt miss from inside of 20 feet.

For the night, the teams shot nearly identical, with Concordia hitting 26-of-64 (.424) and Northern State at 26-of-63 (.407). The Wolves delivered two more three-pointers (8 to 6) and four more free throws (19 to 15) which would be the difference.

Concordia remains at home for a rare Tuesday night conference game against 11th-ranked Minnesota State at 8 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.