MOORHEAD, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (11-5, 6-3 NSIC) came back from a 22 point deficit to take a 53-52 lead with just under nine minutes to play before MSU Moorhead (9-4, 5-4 NSIC) held on to defeat Concordia 81-68 on Friday night at Alex Nemzek Hall.

MSU Moorhead scored the first 14 points of the game and built the largest lead of the night at 30-8 with 9:36 to play in the first half. Haley Thomforde started hot for the Dragons and finished with 26 points and eight rebounds while Megan Strese cleaned up inside for MSUM with 16 points and 18 rebounds.

The Concordia comeback was sparked by Ameshia Kearney who scored a career-high 24 points including 6-9 three-point shooting. Anika Whiting was also effective with 19 points on 7-11 shooting but fouled out with 4:34 to play after playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble.

The Kearney-Whiting tandem was excellent, combining to score 43 points on 15-29 shooting. The rest of the team made just 7-37 (.189) from the floor, though.

Carissa Wolyniec would also catch fire late, finishing with 15 points including three three-pointers.

Tierra Bender ran the offense with eight assists to just one turnover while grabbing six rebounds.

Kionda Nicks capitalized on the extra playing time with Whiting's foul trouble, grabbing a team-high seven rebounds with five blocked shots off the bench. It was her first half three-pointer with 9:10 to play that started Concordia's momentum towards a comeback.

The Nicks three-pointer started a three-point attack as Wolyniec and Kearney also connected from deep. Kearney's second three-pointer during the run brought the game to single-digits as Concordia went on a 16-3 spurt to pull with nine points back (24-33) with 4:22 to play in the half.

The Dragons pushed it back to double-digits and led 41-29 at the break.

Concordia continued the momentum into the second half with a pair of Wolyniec free throws giving the Golden Bears their first lead 53-52 with 8:47 to play.

The Dragons responded with four straight points and led the rest of the way, pulling away late.

Megan Strese's rebounding paved the way for the Dragons to out-rebound Concordia 48-36.

Both teams struggled from the floor, shooting below 40% on both sides. Concordia made 10 three-pointers to MSUM's five, but the Dragons attempted only seven while Concordia hoisted 26 during the furious comeback.

The difference came at the foul line, where MSUM made 84.2% of its 38 attempts while Concordia made 77.8% of its 18 attempts. The Dragons outscored Concordia 32-14 at the stripe en route to the win, being called for 11 fewer fouls.

Three Golden Bears fouled out and two others had four fouls while no one fouled out for MSUM as the Dragons had three players with four fouls.

Concordia looks to rebound tomorrow at Northern State with a 5 p.m. tip at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, S.D.