WAYNE, Neb. - Concordia-St. Paul (3-6, 0-5 NSIC) couldn't complete a second half comeback in a 65-59 loss at Wayne State (4-5, 1-4 NSIC) on Saturday night at Rice Auditorium.

Concordia trailed by as many as 16 points, 38-22 at the break.

The Golden Bears trimmed the margin to five as they out-scored the Wildcats 18-7 in the first nine and a half minutes of the second period.

Concordia finally trimmed the deficit to two points with 39 seconds to play when Travon Mitchell converted a layup (57-55).

While Concordia trailed by two points three times in the final 39 seconds of the game, they never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead as the Wildcats hit all eight free throw attempts down the stretch.

Terez VanPelt led Concordia with 17 points on 9-10 free throw shooting while Mitchell had 14 points off the bench. Chris Halvorsen led Concordia with 10 rebounds.

Wayne State was led by Ty Bauschek's 29 points on 7-12 shooting including 4-7 three-point shooting. He also made 11-12 at the line.

Concordia struggled from the perimeter, hitting 16.7% (3-18) from behind the arc and also struggled from the stripe (16-29, 55.2%).

Wayne State didn't fare much better from the field or from the arc, but converted 80.0% (16-20) from the fou line.

Concordia closes out the calendar year next Saturday at Minnesota State in Mankato, Minn.