WINONA, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball (3-1) had a similar offensive afternoon as the result in Saturday's loss, but defensively held Ferris State (0-3) to 30.9% (17-55) shooting to secure a 79-57 win at McCown Gymnasium on the campus of Winona State University.

Like Saturday's loss to Northwood, the Golden Bears struggled from the floor in the first half, hitting 30.3% (10-33) from the floor. But a defensive effort that held the Bulldogs to 28.6% (8-28) shooting helped Concordia go into the break with a 10-point lead (36-26).

Also like Saturday, Concordia's offense came alive after the intermission, hitting 50.0% (15-30) from the field while knocking down seven of the team's 11 three-pointers in the process.

Meanwhile the defensive effort remained consistent as Ferris State shot just 33.3% (9-27) from the field and 8.3% (1-12) from long range as it was unable to get back into the contest.

The combination led to a 43-31 second half score and a 22-point final margin of victory in a game that Concordia led by as many as 25 points in the second half.

Concordia also took care of the ball, turning it over just eight times while forcing twice as many.

The first half featured a pair of ties and three lead changes as the team's jostled for the upper-hand after Ferris State started out strong with an 8-0 advantage in the first 1:39 of play.

Concordia trailed 14-12 nearing the midway point of the half (11:33) before a Cole Olstad three-pointer put them ahead for good. It sparked a 9-0 spurt to give Concordia its largest lead of the game at the time of seven points (21-14, 9:08).

Ferris State trimmed the margin back to three over the next minute and a half, but a three-pointer by Clay Olstad followed by a Travon Mitchell triple started a 12-2 run as Concordia took its largest lead of the half, 33-20 after a pair of Terez VanPelt free throws. VanPelt hit 11-of-12 at the line and led all scorers with 19 points, adding four assists.

Over the weekend, Concordia's perimiter game got going with 23 total three-pointers. Today, they hit at a 45.8% clip in 24 attempts.

In the second half, Ferris State again cut into the double-digit margin, trimming it from a once 13-point Concordia lead to just eight, 40-32, two and a half minutes into the second half.

Three-pointers by Cole Olstad, Keith Crockett and Mitchell ballooned the lead to 17, 53-36, with just under 14 minutes to play and Cole Olstad added another three-pointer with 10:28 left to push the lead to 19 points.

Cole Olstad knocked down three three-pointers in the game and finished with 17 points and four assists.

The three-pointer continued to fall and continued to bury the Bulldogs later in the half as VanPelt connected on two-straight with a Crockett layup pushing the lead to 24 points, 67-43, with just under eight to play.

Concordia would open up a 25-point lead four separate times the rest of the way.

While Olstad and VanPelt led the team in scoring with 17 and 19, respectively, Crockett and Mitchell each contributed 13 points. Crockett also had four rebounds and three steals with two assists.

Ferris State was led by Josh Fleming and Jared Stolicker with 11 points each.

Concordia won the rebound margin, 43-40, thanks to spread out team rebounding. Four players had four rebounds each, while sophomore Mike Yahnke and senior Cordell Smith each came off the bench with seven and five rebounds, respectively, to lead the team.

The Golden Bears return to action next Saturday, Nov. 30 with the NSIC opener at home against #5 Minnesota State at 4 p.m.