WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Concordia-St. Paul (0-1) led by as many as 14 points late in the first half and as many as 12 early in the second half, but fell by a point 82-81 to East Central (Okla., 1-0) at UCM Multipurpose Building on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.

The Golden Bears will play host campus Central Missouri tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Mules defeated Minnesota Duluth 78-60 after the Concordia-ECU contest.

Concordia held the lead for 25:29 of play compared to 11:25 for East Central with ECU's largest lead of seven coming in the first five minutes while Concordia held a double-digit lead as late as 16:34 to play in the game.

Senior Cole Olstad had a big season opener with 26 points and nine rebounds, also dishing out four assists. He shot 9-20 from the field and 2-8 from three-point range, also making 6-7 at the line. East Central was led by Stirling Thomas with 25 points while Braxton Reeves added 23.

It was Stirling who hit the game-winner for the Tigers, making a step-back three-pointer with four seconds to play for the final 82-81 score. It was one of four three-pointers he buried in nine attempts.

Concordia started slow out of the gate as ECU built an early 12-5 lead five minutes into play. Concordia stormed back with an 18-4 run over the next five minutes as Olstad scored nine points during the spurt to give Concordia a 23-16 lead with 9:29 to play.

A three-pointer by Jon Sobaski with 7:06 to play in the half gave Concordia its first double-digit lead at 28-18. The Golden Bears continued to push the margin as Olstad found center Josh Monroy in the lane, finishing with the foul for a three-point play. Olstad then followed with a three-pointer to extend it to a 12-point lead, 35-23 with 4:45 to play in the half.

Freshman Brandon McRoy scored his first career bucket with just over three and a half minutes to play in the half to give the team its largest lead, 39-25 and Diallo Powell finished on the break with 45 seconds to play to once again make it a 14-point game, 46-32 before ECU added a bucket late for a 46-34 halftime score.

The Powell layup followed five straight points by Olstad who scored 18 points in the first half on 6-11 shooting. Powell finished the night with 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Golden Bears had a big first half, shooting 50.0 percent from the field (17-34) and three-point range (4-8) while converting 80.0 percent from the line (8-10). Concordia's defense got after the Tigers as well, limiting East Central to 38.7 percent first half shooting (12-31).

In the second half, the shooting reversed as Concordia went cold, shooting 38.2 percent from the floor (13-34) and making just one of seven from the arc. Additionally, the free throws didn't drop as Concordia made 53.3 percent (8-15) in the second half and were just 2-6 in the last two and a half minutes of play.

East Central found its stroke in the second half, making 50.0 percent from the field (16-32) and 46.7 percent from three (7-15) including the game-winner.

The final tally showed a nearly identical shooting night as Concordia shot 44.1 percent (30-68) to East Central's 44.4 percent (28-63) although the Tigers made six more three-pointers (11-26) than the Golden Bears (5-15).

While East Central was strong from the arc, Concordia had a decided advantage inside with a 49-36 rebound margin and 48-22 scoring margin in the paint.

Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz scored 11 points including 2-3 three-point shooting to lead a Concordia bench that produced a 26-9 scoring advantage over the Tigers. Five of Concordia's six reserves scored and all six collected a rebound.

Deron Hill added 12 points for East Central while Aly Hudgins collected a game-high 17 rebounds, adding seven points.