MARSHALL, Minn. - For the second consecutive night on the road, Concordia-St. Paul (6-14, 3-11 NSIC) went up against an opponent that had a season-best three-point shooting night. Tonight it was host Southwest Minnesota State (10-9, 6-8 NSIC) who made a season-high 12 three-pointers compared to Concordia's one in a 78-55 contest at R/A Facility.

The Golden Bears return home where they've won three of their last four games at Gangelhoff Center on Friday night against #7 MSU Moorhead at 8 p.m. for Golden Bear Bash (register today!). Saturday, Concordia will host Northern State at 6 p.m. with Bowling for Bears immediately following at Midway Pro Bowl with registration at 8:30 p.m. and bowling at 9 p.m. (register today!).

But unlike last night, tonight's game was close in the early going with seven lead changes and a pair of ties in the first nine minutes of play before the Mustangs took the lead for good.

Despite SMSU leading for the final 30-plus minutes of the game, the contest was still in doubt as Concordia trailed by just three (30-27) with three and a half minutes to go in the half following a Mike Yahnke layup.

Yahnke went 4-6 from the floor on the night for eight points and finished the weekend 10-12 shooting.

SMSU closed out the half with a 5-1 spurt to take a 35-28 lead into the break and started the second half with a 24-5 run for a decisive 27-6 stretch of basketball to take control of the game with a 59-33 lead with just over 11 minutes to play.

Concordia wasn't able to get the lead under 20 the rest of the night as SMSU led by as many as 31 (72-41, 7:23).

While Concordia was able to hang 90 points at Sioux Falls in a high scoring loss a night ago, tonight the Golden Bears went cold from the floor, shooting 35.6 percent (21-59) from the field but more importantly a chilly 7.7 percent (1-13) from the arc.

SMSU was efficient from the field at 52.5 percent (31-59) and from the arc at 42.9 percent (12-28) to compensate for Concordia nearly doubling the free throw attempts (17-8) where the Golden Bears outscored the Mustangs 12-4 at the stripe.

Concordia was led by seniors Cole Olstad and Shea Mandli with 13 points and six rebounds each but the Golden Bears were topped 42-29 on the glass overall. Mandli made 5-6 from the field while Olstad was 6-13.

Freshman Steven Kragt was efficient with seven points on 3-6 shooting off the bench including 1-2 from three-point range in his first two career three-point shots as a college player.

Freshman Brandon McRoy, making his second consecutive start led the Golden Bears on the glass by establishing a career-high nine rebounds, topping his previous high mark of six in a big performance in the paint.

The Mustangs were led by Taylor Schafer's career-high 18 points off the bench, shooting 7-11 from the field and 4-8 from the arc while Joey Bartlett added 17 points. Drew Osmundson added a season-high 10 points for SMSU and Mitch Weg was a point shy of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.