SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Concordia-St. Paul (6-14-, 3-11 NSIC) fell into a 15-0 hole in the first five minutes of play in a 110-90 loss at Sioux Falls (11-8, 6-7 NSIC) on Friday night. Concordia remains on the road tomorrow at 7 p.m. at R/A Facility against Southwest Minnesota State (9-9, 5-8 NSIC), who defeated Minnesota State 85-71 this evening.

The Cougars set the tone early by hitting three three-pointers during the decisive early game run. Aside from the early three-pointers, USF was also able to score at the basket and throughout the evening would either convert at the rim or behind the arc with regularity.

Sioux Falls buried 20 three-pointers at a 58.8 percent clip (20-34) on their home nets at Stewart Center.

Concordia also had a strong night shooting, converting 58.5 percent (31-53) from the floor and 43.8 percent (7-16) from the arc.

The Golden Bears were an efficient 64.9 percent (24-37) inside the arc while Sioux Falls was 65.2 percent (15-23) on two-pointers as Concordia outscored USF 46-24 in the lane.

Despite the deep early game hole, Concordia rallied back quickly with a 10-2 run to cut the margin to seven points. Redshirt Matt Ambriz was the offensive spark off the bench as he immediately knocked in a three-pointer to cut it to 17-5.

Ambriz scored 14 first half points with his buckets keeping the margin hovering around or under the double-digit mark.

He finished the night with a career-high 19 points, making 6-8 from the field and 4-5 from the arc.

Senior Cole Olstad led Concordia with 21 points as five Golden Bears reached double figures with Bryndan Matthews scoring 13, Mike Yahnke 12 and Diallo Powell 10.  Brandon McRoy made his first career start, scoring eight points.

Yahnke was 6-6 from the floor, adding four rebounds.

With the two teams shooting so well from the floor throughout, it was Shea Mandli who led Concordia on the glass with just five rebounds.

Sioux Falls was led by Drew Guebert's 28 points on 8-10 shooting including 5-6 from the arc with six rebounds off the bench.

Clint Thomas led the outside shooting barrage with a school record seven three-pointers (7-11), as he didn't attempt a shot inside the arc but still led the team on the glass with eight rebounds.

The Cougars were efficient with second chances, pulling down 10 offensive rebounds despite just 22 missed field goal attempts for a 21-13 edge in second chance scoring.

Concordia continued to hang around in the contest despite USF's windfall of three-pointers.

The Golden Bears trailed by just 11 at the break (49-38) despite the early 15-0 start for the Cougars and a Yahnke jumper under the 15 minute mark of the second half brought the margin back to nine (58-49) for the first time since the 5:19 mark of the first half (35-26) after an Ambriz three-pointer.

Less than a minute later, a pair of Olstad free throws (where he was 7-7 on the night) made it a 60-51 game before the Cougars sprinted away from the Bears.

Thomas hit three-pointers at the beginning and end of a 16-2 run covering just over three minutes as USF put the game away 76-53 with 10:54 to go. During the run, Mack Johnson also scored seven of his 16 points.

From there, the margin stayed at least 17 points despite a pair of fastbreak dunks by Powell, who scored all 10 of his points in those final 11 minutes including eight in a stretch of less than two minutes of action.