ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (6-12, 3-9 NSIC) couldn't recover from a slow start, falling 82-66 to Minnesota State (13-5, 8-4 NSIC) on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.

Concordia's three game winning streak comes to a close as the Golden Bears close out a five game homestand with a 3-2 record. The team will hit the road this Friday at Sioux Falls (8 p.m.) and Saturday at SMSU (7 p.m.).

Senior guard Cole Olstad scored 24 points to move into seventh on Concordia's career scoring list with 1,296 points, surpassing Kyle Timmer (1990-94) with 1,295. Olstad shot 7-12 from the floor, 3-5 from three and 7-8 from the line while grabbing six rebounds and nabbing three steals.

In the first meeting in Mankato in December, Joey Witthus dropped in eight three-pointers and scored 24 points. Tonight, Concorida held him to 11 points on 3-6 three-point shooting with eight rebounds. But it was Alex Herink who burned the Golden Bears tonight with 27 points on 9-13 shooting including four three-pointers off the bench in 31 minutes. He entered play averaging 3.4 points in 9.5 minutes per game on the season.

The Golden Bears got off to a slow start offensively, making just three of their first 20 shots while Minnesota State was efficient in making 9-16 from the floor to build a 22-10 advantage past the halfway mark of the first half.

While Concordia was able to get going offensively slashing to the lane and in the post, the three-point shot didn't fall hitting just 5-20 (25.0%). MSU countered by knocking down 9-19 (47.4%), a big drop from the 17 three's they buried in Mankato in the first meeting.

Concordia had four players reach double-figures in scoring as Shea Mandli scored 15 with eight rebounds (six offensive) while Diallo Powell matched him with 15, adding four steals. Bryndan Matthews also scored 10 points.

MSU had just three in double-figures with Jon Fuqua adding 16 points and eight rebounds to go with Witthus and Herink's evening.

While Concordia had more reach double-figures, the rest of the Mavericks scored 28 points while the rest of the Golden Bears had just two points.

MSU led for nearly the entire night with 35:51 of the 40 minutes ahead, pushing it to as many as 18 late in the second half.

After falling behind by 17 (56-39) with under 12 minutes to play, the Golden Bears made their strongest run of the night as Olstad scored six and Matthews scored four points during a 10-3 surge to cut it to eight, 64-56 with under six minutes to go.

But Herink buried a three-pointer during the run and knocked down another run to end it, hitting a jumper a few possessions later to push it back to a 15-point game with under four minutes left to put it out of reach.

On the night, Concordia shot 34.8 percent (23-66) from the field while Minnesota State was consistent offensively throughout at 50.9 percent (28-55) as MSU shot at or above 50.0 percent each period. Concordia held a 17-12 edge on the offensive glass but was outscored 11-7 in second chance points to neutralize the inside edge.