ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (16-10, 12-8 NSIC) defeated Winona State (12-12, 9-11 NSIC) 74-63 on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center. The victory is the first home win over Winona State in program history in 18 meetings and also secures an NSIC Sanford Health Tournament first round home game on Wednesday, February 25.

Junior Cole Olstad became the 17th member of Concordia's 1,000 point club with 18 points, pushing him to 1,009 in his career. Senior Terez VanPelt became the second Golden Bear to surpass 1,500 career points with nine points to give him 1,507 to join Craig Heiman (2006-10) as the only two to reach the milestone.

It will be Concordia's first NSIC Tournament home game since March 2, 2011 in an 86-72 loss to Winona State. Concordia also hosted first round tournament games in 2007-08 and 2006-07, with the only first round home win coming in 2006-07.

The Golden Bears are currently in third in the NSIC South Division standings, with the top four in each division earning home games. Upper Iowa trails Concordia by one game with two regular season games to play next weekend. Concordia will travel to Southwest Minnesota State (8-12) and Sioux Falls (5-15) while Upper Iowa will host Augustana (19-1) and Wayne State (4-16).

Concordia led for over 36 minutes of the 40 minute competition that featured just three lead changes and one tie. The Golden Bears jumped out to a hot start, leading 14-4 just over four and a half minutes into the game on the heels of early three-pointers from Keith Crockett, Nuni Omot and Olstad along with a strong Omot dunk.

Olstad and Omot each finished with 18 points and Crockett had 14. Olstad had a double-double with 10 rebounds, adding four assists and three steals while shooting 4-6 from three-point rang. Crockett missed a double-double by an assist as he dished out nine while collecting four rebounds and three steals.

Shea Mandli gave Concordia a fourth player in double-figures with 11 points off the bench, missing a double-double by a rebound with nine.

After the hot start, Winona State responded with a 16-4 spurt to take a 24-20 lead with just under four and a half minutes to play in the opening half. Concordia answered back starting with another Omot flush as he scored five straight points on his own in a 7-0 run for the Golden Bears.

Concordia held Winona State to 0-7 three-point shooting to start the game, with WSU finally hitting their first three-pointer with four and a half minutes to play in the first half. In the first meeting in Winona, the Warriors connected on eight first half three-pointers and made 15 for the evening.

Concordia led the rest of the way, carrying the lead for 23-plus consecutive minutes for the win.

Despite a close halftime score with Concordia leading 35-32 at the break behind Omot's 14 points, WSU was able to trim the lead to one early in the second half before Concordia pushed it to 10, 46-36 with 12:44 to play.

When the Golden Bears held a 50-40 lead with 11 minutes left, Concordia held strong advantages in second chance scoring (14-3) and points off turnovers (16-4).

The Warriors kept coming back, trimming it back to a point, 53-52 with just under seven minutes left with Olstad responding with a three-pointer on the next possession. After Winona State cut it back to three, 57-54, Olstad delivered another three-pointer with 4:37 to go.

With under three and a half minutes left, Crockett came up with big shots to stop Winona State's momentum. After a WSU three-pointer by Isaiah Gray cut it back to three, 60-57, Crockett converted a floater in traffic in the paint and a minute later buried a three-pointer to protect another three-point lead as the Warriors didn't have a possession with a chance to tie or take the lead in the last six minutes of play.

Concordia made 9-of-10 at the line in the final two minutes to seal the contest.

Gray led Winona State with 15 points on 7-13 shooting while Kyle Bauman added 11 off the bench.

Concordia held Winona State to just 21.1 percent (4-19) three-point shooting on the night while hitting 40.0 percent (8-20) on their own nets.

The Golden Bears also had a strong rebounding night with a 38-21 margin including 15-11 on the offensive glass for a 19-9 edge in second chance points. The final turnover margin had Concordia at a +4, forcing 15 while committing 11 which turned into a 17-9 scoring advantage off turnovers.

Concordia was also more aggressive offensively, getting to the foul line 25 times to Winona State's 13 attempts which led to an 18-9 scoring margin at the stripe.

The Golden Bears were able to shoot 52.2 percent (12-23) in the second half, including 83.3 percent (5-6) three-point shooting.