MARSHALL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (8-17, 5-16 NSIC) dropped a heartbreaking 69-67 loss at Southwest Minnesota State (17-10, 14-7 NSIC) on Friday night at R/A Facility.

SMSU's Vinard Birch drove through the lane and dropped in a layup with 2.2 seconds to play to break a 67-67 tie.

Concordia's Cordell Smith delivered a half court pass to Terez VanPelt who dropped a pass to Travon Mitchell wide open on the right wing. Mitchell's open look at a three was just off the mark at the buzzer.

Concordia led late in the second half, poised to top the ninth-ranked team in the NCAA Central Region on the road. The Golden Bears opened up their largest lead of six twice in the last five and a half minutes, first on a three-point play by Smith and again on a pair of VanPelt free throws.

VanPelt finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-18 shooting including 2-2 free throws to push his streak to 29-straight. He also had five assists and four rebounds and just one turnover.

Smith had eight points and six rebounds with three assists and two steals. Mitchell had 14 points and seven rebounds while knocking down 4-8 from three-point range.

Inside, Mike Yahnke led Concordia's posts with 12 points on 5-8 shooting with four rebounds while Shea Mandli and Chris Halvorsen combined to shoot 3-5 from the field off the bench for seven points and six rebounds.

Birch led SMSU with 17 points and five assists. He was 8-13 from the floor. In the closing minute, Birch missed a clean look at a pull up in the lane that was rebounded by Nick Smith, his ninth of rebound of the game. The extra possession allowed Birch to go back to the lane and instead of pulling up he attacked the rim for the lay-in.

SMSU got off to a strong start, leading by eight (14-6) in the first five minutes of play.

But Concordia roared back quickly this time, forcing three ties in the first half although they never led. The teams went into the break knotted at 33-33.

Mitchell delivered a three-pointer early in the second half to give Concordia its first lead, 38-37 with 17:37 to play.

The second half featured five ties and 10 lead changes as the teams clawed at each other for the upper hand.

Concordia made 8-17 from three-point range (47.1%) but only shot 40.6% (26-64) from the floor while SMSU shot 51.8% (29-56) from the floor but only made 6-18 from three-point range (33.3%).

Concordia only turned the ball over six times while forcing 11 leading to a 12-3 scoring margin off turnovers but Concordia's bench was outscored 24-7 and the team shooting percentages were too much to overcome on the road.

Concordia closes out the regular season tomorrow at Sioux Falls with a 6 p.m. tip. The Golden Bears are tied with Wayne State at 5-16 in the NSIC South Division, but with the Wildcats holding the head-to-head tiebreaker, Concordia must win and Wayne State must lose for Concordia to gain the seventh seed. Wayne State closes out the season at Upper Iowa with a late 8 p.m. tip.