ST. PAUL, Minn. - Junior guard Terez VanPelt scored a game-high 28 points and became the 16th player in Concordia-St. Paul (4-11, 1-10 NSIC) men's basketball history to score 1,000 career points but the Golden Bears came up just short in an 83-80 loss to Wayne State (8-7, 5-6 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.



Concordia led by 11 points (61-50) with 10:21 to play when VanPelt converted a jumper set-up by junior Travon Mitchell.

But the Wildcats would start a 19-1 run on the ensuing possession as reserve point guard Gary Ross buried a three-pointer. The 19-1 spurt turned the 11-point deficit into an eight point lead with 2:39 to play as Concordia's offense was held to just one free throw by Mitchell (7:15) during the nearly eight minute run.

Concordia went without a field goal for nearly nine full minutes when VanPelt finally scored on a fastbreak with 1:22 to play.

The Wildcats held the eight point lead until 35 seconds to play after a pair of Ryan Rolfzen free throws extended the score to 78-70. Rolfzen scored 20 points off the bench to lead the Wildcats.

Seemingly buried, Concordia responded just a few seconds later as junior Keith Crockett buried a three-pointer on a cross-court pass by VanPelt, who also had four assists in the game while playing all 40 minutes.

On the inbounds pass, Concordia's press forced a turnover, trapping Ty Bauschek in the corner to create a jump ball with Concordia winning the alternating possession.

The Golden Bears found VanPelt on the inbounds open on the wing. After a shot fake, dribble and another shot fake, VanPelt found Mandli wide open on the wing as the post buried the three-pointer.

Concordia had cut the WSC deficit from eight to three while using just 11 seconds of game clock.

With new life, Concordia trailed by three with 24 seconds to play. Ross knocked down two free throws for the Wildcats with 21 seconds left to extend the lead back to five.

A pair of free throws by senior Cordell Smith at 15 seconds were followed by Bauschek making just one of two to leave the margin at four in favor of WSC with 11 seconds to go.

Five seconds later, Crockett found Mandli for an open three-pointer on the wing to cut the gap to one, 81-80, with six seconds left.

Bauschek made both free throws with three seconds remaining but Concordia set up a solid full court play to get VanPelt an open look at a running three-pointer at the buzzer that was off the mark to leave Concordia's improbable comeback short.

VanPelt was the story throughout as he scored the eight points he needed to hit 1,000 six minutes into the contest en route to a 17-point first half. His strong start had the Golden Bears leading 14-3 when he hit 1,000 before WSC rallied for a 15-3 run to take its first lead at the under 10-minute mark.

The 28 points VanPelt finished with tied his career-high for the third time. He was 9-16 from the floor and 9-10 from the foul line while playing turnover free for the night.

He's the seventh player in Concordia's Division II era (1999-00 to present) to reach the milestone and the first since Mike Cunningham topped 1,000 points in 2009-10. The 20-plus point game was his seventh in 11 NSIC contests as well.

Mandli added 13 points on 5-5 shooting including 2-2 three-point shooting. Mitchell had 14 points to lead Concordia's bench while Smith had 11 points.

Concordia returns home tomorrow at 6 p.m. to host Augustana in NSIC South Division competition.