WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Concordia-St. Paul (0-2) used a balanced scoring effort but couldn't hold off host Central Missouri (2-0) in a 77-52 on Saturday afternoon at the UCM Multipurpose Building.

The Golden Bears will host the 15th-ranked Division III team, St. Olaf next Saturday evening in the home opener at Gangelhoff Center. Tip is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m., but could be pushed back if the top-ranked volleyball team hosts the NSIC Tournament earlier in the afternoon.

Concordia's five starters scored between six and nine points each while the bench added 13 points but the team shot just 34.0 percent (18-53) from the field and committed 21 turnovers.

The Mules countered by hitting 45.3 percent (29-64) from the floor and cashed in eight three-pointers to Concordia's five, committing just 13 turnovers.  UCM would outscore Concordia 18-7 on turnovers and 8-2 on the fastbreak.

Cole Olstad led the team in scoring for the second straight game with nine points and five rebounds including a pair of three-pointers. Diallo Powell, Jon Sobaski and Bryndan Matthews all had eight points each with Matthews leading the team with six rebounds. Sobaski also added five rebounds while Powell had four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

The Mules were led by Roosevelt Scott's 19 points on 8-15 shooting with four steals.

Concordia led early in the game, with Powell hitting a pair of free throws for a 7-5 edge four minutes into play. At that point, Powell had been to the line five times, sinking four while Olstad started the scoring on the game's first possession with a three-pointer just 10 seconds into play.

Then the Golden Bears hit a cold spell as the Mules opened up a 15-0 run to build a 20-7 lead midway through the half. UCM pushed the lead to 20 at the break, 36-16.

Concordia would only cut the gap under 20 three more times, the last coming with 6:23 to play in the game on a Matt Ambriz three-pointer to make it 63-44. UCM promptly pushed the margin to the game's highest of 30 points, 75-45 with 4:07 left.