ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (7-14, 4-13 NSIC) made a school record 37 free throws and buried nine three-pointers but came up short in a 97-84 loss to Sioux Falls (12-9, 9-8 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.

The Cougars countered by hitting 12 three-pointers at a 60.0% rate and shooting 52.6% from the floor overall. Concordia shot just 32.8% from the field, resulting in 11 fewer made shots than USF which offset Concordia's 37-25 scoring margin at the stripe. Concordia also had a 16-9 edge in offensive rebounding, but it only materialized to a 13-11 advantage in second chance scoring and the Golden Bears were outscored 30-10 in the paint.

The 37 made free throws by Concordia break the program record set in 1973-74 against North Central, while the 45 free throw attempts was just one shy of the record set againt Trinity in 1968-69.

Concordia junior Travon Mitchell scored a career-high 28 points including five three-pointers off the bench as Concordia's reserves had a 33-4 scoring advantage over USF's.

Jjunior Terez VanPelt added 26 points on 14-14 foul shooting and six assists. VanPelt broke the career record for free throws made in the game, moving ahead of Kyle Timmer (333, 1990-94) with 345 in just under three seasons. He's just one made free throw shy of tying his own single-season mark set last year, as he has made 149 in 21 games compared to 150 in 27 games last year.

The Cougars were led by the unconscious shooting from Mack Johnson. He made 10-11 from the field and was perfect in seven three-point attempts for a game-high 29 points.



Five Cougars scored in double-figures as Mahlon Jones added 20 points and seven assists and Bryan Kielpinski had 14 points and 12 rebounds (seven offensive).

Concordia's inside play was led by senior Cordell Smith with 15 points and eight rebounds (six offensive). Smith also had three assists and three steals while converting 10-13 at the stripe.

Aside from Mitchell, VanPelt and Smith, Concordia had just 15 combined points as the rest of the squad combined to shoot 5-19 from the field.

Sioux Falls led by as many as 17 points in the second half, 79-62 with 7:26 to play. The Golden Bears made a strong push to get back in the contest down the stretch, closing the margin to eight (88-80) with 2:31 left before the Cougars closed the game out in the final two minutes.

Concordia returns home tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the regular season home finale against Southwest Minnesota State for senior night.