NSIC/SANFORD HEALTH TOURNAMENT LINKS: WEBSITE | BRACKET

ST. PAUL, Minn. -  Concordia-St. Paul (9-17, 7-15 NSIC) was unable to get the upper hand for seeding on Sioux Falls (12-14, 8-14), falling 73-66 to the Cougars on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center in the regular season finale and Concordia's final home game of the 2012-13 season.

The two teams entered play tied for seventh in the NSIC South Division, with the Cougars completing the season sweep of the Golden Bears to earn the seventh seed in the NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament. USF will travel to Aberdeen, S.D. to play the second seed from the North Division, Northern State. Concordia drew the eighth seed and will travel to #22 St. Cloud State, the top seed from the North. Concordia will play SCSU at Halenbeck Hall at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 27.

Concordia was slow out of the gate as the Cougars scored the game's first 10 points before senior Isaiah Thomas (Fridley, Minn.) woke the Golden Bears from hibernation on senior night by delivering a three-pointer just under four minutes into the game.

The Cougars extended the early lead to 13 points, 16-3, at the 13:44 mark when redshirt freshman Mike Yahnke (Delano, Minn.) converted a jumper to snap Concordia's second offensive drought. Yahnke scored six points with five rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

Thomas followed with his second three-pointer of the half to trim the lead to eight on Concordia's next possession. Later in the half and trailing by 13 again, Thomas hit his third three-pointer of the half which was followed by a three-pointer by sophomore Cole Olstad (Elgin, Minn.) to get the margin down to seven.

That was the closest Concordia would be in the first half, as USF scored 9-straight points in the last 2:42 to close out the half. Concordia didn't score in the final 4:38 of the period as the Golden Bears trailed by 19, 45-26 at the break.

Thomas scored nine in the first half and finished his final game at Gangelhoff Center with 11 points. Olstad scored 15 on the night with nine coming after the break. Olstad also had six rebounds and two blocks for the Golden Bears. Both players made three three-pointers in the game.

USF continued the momentum into the second half, opening up a 24-point lead (53-29) just over four minutes into the period.

It wasn't until after the 10-minute mark when the Golden Bears made their run. Trailing by 20, 62-42 with under nine minutes to play, Yahnke scored in the lane to start a 14-0 run to trim the USF lead to six, 62-56 with 4:19 to play. The run was capped off by a DJ Lewis (New Orleans) three-pointer. Lewis had seven points and three assists off the bench.

Concordia held the Cougars without a basket for nearly six minutes of action to get back in the contest.

During the run, five different players scored for Concordia with junior Cordell Smith (Mequon, Wis.) scoring five points to lead the charge including three free throws. Smith also had three rebounds and a steal during the run. He finished the game with eight points, 10 rebounds and was 4-of-5 at the line. It was his third 10-rebound game over the last five contests - all career-highs.

USF pushed the lead quickly back up to 10 points but the margin never went past 10 the rest of the way. With 2:42 left, Concordia scored six straight points with Terez VanPelt (Osseo, Minn.) finishing in the lane with 22 seconds to play to cut the margin to four, 68-64.

The Cougars made their next three free throws and after missing the fourth free throw with eight seconds to play, Keaton Moffitt rebounded his own miss and converted the put-back to put the game away.

VanPelt led Concordia with 19 points on the night, adding five assists and only one turnover in 36 minutes. He was 8-of-14 from the floor. He's only three points away from the fifth 500-point season in program history and currently holds the highest single-season scoring mark at 19.1 points per game. He's also second on the single season list with 143 free throws made, while also ranking second in attempts (170) and seventh in percentage (83.6%). His 119 assists currently rank eighth in a season as well. He's just two free throws shy of tying Kyle Timmer's single season record set in 1992-93 and 32 points shy of reaching Brian Jamros' mark of 529 set in the 2003-04 campaign.

The Cougars led in the game from start to finish and shot 52.6% (30-57) for the game. Concordia shot 44.6% (25-56), but made 41.2% (7-17) from long range and 90.0% (9-10) at the foul line.

Sioux Falls was led by AJ Holland with 17 points while James Rader had 14 points and 10 rebounds. All nine Cougars that played scored and seven players had at least six points.