MOORHEAD, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (4-9, 1-8 NSIC) dropped a high scoring 100-85 decision at MSU Moorhead (10-3, 6-3 NSIC) on Friday night at Alex Nemzek Hall.

Concordia started fast, jumping out to a 15-8 lead in the first six-plus minutes of play. In the fast start, Terez VanPelt had five points and three assists, two of them coming on three-pointers by Cordell Smith.

VanPelt finished the night with a game-high 22 points and six assists, shooting 5-9 from the floor and 11-13 from the stripe. He's now 28 points shy of the 1,000 point milestone.

Smith added 15 points on 5-7 from the floor and 4-6 from three-point range.

The Dragons came back and with a 20-20 tie went on a 13-0 run over a three-plus minute span to take a 33-20 lead with 5:42 to play in the half.

The lead stayed in double-figures the rest of the game as MSUM pushed it to as many as 22 in the second half.

Concordia's offense was strong, shooting a season-high 57.8% (26-45) from the floor and getting to the foul line 39 times. Concordia also connected on 52.9% (9-17) from long range.

The Golden Bears shot a higher field goal and three-point percentage than the Dragons as well, as MSUM shot 56.9% from the floor and 45.8% from distance. Concordia also got to the nearly twice as much as MSUM had 20 free throw attempts.

But the Dragons shot 20 more field goal attempts and seven more three-pointers. The Dragons combined to outscore Concordia 36-24 off turnovers and second chances and had a 15-4 edge in offensive rebounding.

Concordia's bench was led by Travon Mitchell's 19 points on 7-12 shooting including 3-4 three-point shooting while Shea Mandli added seven.

The Golden Bears trimmed the final margin from 20 to 15 by scoring on a baseline layup by Jake Ruhland with five seconds to play. On the inbounds pass, Ngijol Songolo flipped the ball to the official with over three seconds to play, with the official letting the ball fall to the floor. Travon Mitchell scooped it up and fired a three-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap further.

The Dragons had six players score in double-figures led by Songolo's 19 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Concordia remains on the road tomorrow against Northern State at 7 p.m. in Aberdeen, S.D. Concordia has never won at Wachs Arena in 16 trips.