ST. PAUL, Minn. - Despite trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, Concordia-St. Paul (4-7, 1-6 NSIC) rallied by limiting Minnesota Duluth (5-6, 3-4 NSIC) to 25.7% second half shooting (9-35) for a 69-60 victory on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.

The win snaps a six game skid for the Golden Bears, improves head coach Kelly Boe to 7-3 all-time against the Bulldogs and moves him into a tie for second place on Concordia's all-time wins list with a 104-100 record in his eight seasons. He ties John Hendrickson (1973-84), who posted a 104-178 career mark for the then-Comets. Boe is also Concordia's leader in career winning percentage (.510) in his 204 career games coached which ranks third in program history.



While Concordia's defense limited the Bulldogs to 25.7% second half shooting, the Golden Bear offense started equally as sluggish in the first half to a 27.8% (10-36) mark. But the Golden Bear defense was more consistent from start to finish, holding UMD to 33.3% (10-30) first half shooting and a 29.2% (19-65) mark for the game, while Concordia shot 41.4% (12-29) in the second half and 33.8% (22-65) for the night.

The Bulldogs scored the first seven points of the game as Concordia was kept off the scoreboard for the first four minutes. UMD opened up a double-digit margin just over seven minutes into play and extended it to 26-12 with 6:39 to play in the first half, pushing it back to 14 one more time with just over five minutes to play.

Concordia closed the half strong, though, as a Terez VanPelt three-pointer with 14 seconds in the half brought the gap to five, 31-26. VanPelt had been held to just two points until the three-pointer.

UMD hit a pair of free throws to give the Bulldogs a 33-26 lead at the break.

VanPelt opened the second half with another three-pointer as Concordia carried the momentum into the start of the half, exploding for a 13-2 run that included a pair of thundering dunks on a rebound tip by sophomore Mike Yahnke and an alley-oop from VanPelt to senior Chris Halvorsen.

VanPelt finished with a game-high 24 points, adding seven rebounds. He scored 19 of his points in the second half and 22 of his 24 points in the last 20:14 of game time.

Yahnke had nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks.

Overall, Concordia had a 28-9 stretch of basketball that spanned the last 2:38 of the first half and first 6:37 of the second half to grab an eight point lead, 47-39.

The Golden Bears didn't trail again and the Bulldogs never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead the rest of the way.

Concordia flipped the UMD lead, pulling up by as many as 11 (58-47, 6:37).

The Golden Bears were kept in the game in the first half by senior Cordell Smith's offense as he scored 11 of his 16 points in the opening period. Smith knocked down 4-6 from long range and 5-8 from the floor in the game.

Concordia's bench was led by Travon Mitchell, who scored eight points with eight rebounds despite 3-16 shooting. Keith Crockett was the team's top distributor with four assists and just one turnover while adding six points and six rebounds.

UMD was led by Peter Crawford's 19 points and eight rebounds. Concordia held UMD's other two top scorers, Reece Zoelle and Jordan Reetz, to just 8-36 combined shooting although they each scored 15 points.

Concordia pulled down a season-high 53 rebounds and expanded on its NSIC-leading offensive rebound average (13.0) with 15 tonight.

The game featured only two ties and one lead change throughout. Concordia knocked down five more three-pointers (9-28) than the Bulldogs (4-18).

The Golden Bears return home tomorrow with a 6 p.m. contest against St. Cloud State at Gangelhoff Center.