WAYNE, Neb. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (2-8, 0-6 NSIC) couldn't hold a 53-47 lead with under four minutes to play as host Wayne State (8-4, 2-4) closed the game on a 14-2 run in the final 3:39 to defeat the Golden Bears 61-55 on Friday night at Rice Auditorium. All eight of Concordia's losses are by 10 points or less.

The Golden Bears had a solid game plan against Wayne State's leading scorer, senior guard Amry Shelby. Sophomore guard Cole Olstad (Elgin, Minn.) drew the defensive assignment and had Shelby bottled up for 36-plus minutes of play. Shelby was held to 3-of-10 shooting including 0-of-5 from three, had just six points and three turnovers.

At that point, Concordia led 53-47 after freshman guard Demitrius Martin (Minnetonka, Minn.) went coast-to-coast for a fastbreak layup in traffic.

While Shelby got hot late for Wayne State, finishing with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, the Golden Bear offense sputtered at the same time.

Concordia committed four turnovers in the last four minutes after only giving away nine in the first 36 minutes. The Golden Bears only attempted four shots during this same stretch as well, missing two three's and a layup with one made bucket by sophomore guard Terez VanPelt (Osseo, Minn.).

VanPelt led the Golden Bears with 13 points on the night, adding seven rebounds and four assists - all team highs. Senior forward Nick Mabbutt (Milton Keynes, UK) added 10 points and three blocks off the bench and Olstad finished with nine points.

Both teams made four three-pointers and were 7-of-9 at the stripe. The rebounding was close and turnovers were 13-to-10 in favor of WSC. It came down to field goal percentage with WSC finishing at 48.1% (25-52) and Concordia at 44.0% (22-50) with Wayne State getting better looks late in the contest to push them over the top.

The game's largest lead was a 7-point advantage late in the first half for Wayne State (30-23, 2:12) while Concordia held a pair of 6-point leads late in the second half (51-45, 6:01 & 53-47, 3:59).

After losing the lead with 2:17 to play, the Golden Bears only had the ball once with a chance to tie or take the lead when they trailed 55-53 on a possession that started at 2:17 and ended with a missed layup with 1:59 remaining. From there, WSC managed the clock well, converting a jumper as the shot clock expired at 1:24.

Concordia's defense, which was strong for much of the second half, had four fouls to give late which allowed Wayne State to take the clock from 28 seconds to 14 seconds before finally being put on the line in the bonus.

The Golden Bears look for their first conference win tomorrow night at Elmen Center against Augustana (8-2, 4-2), coming off a loss to Minnesota State (48-60) tonight.