ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (7-14, 4-11 NSIC) shocked the Northern Sun on Friday night with a dramatic 98-97 double-overtime victory over #3 MSU Moorhead (21-3, 13-2 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center. Concordia looks to keep momentum hosting Northern State tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Freshman OC Omoregie, who was not in uniform until the second overtime, came off the bench in the final minute, dishing to freshman Steven Kragt on the break with 2.4 seconds to play for the game winning layup. The Dragons had just claimed the advantage when Tyler Vaughn finished in the lane with 10 seconds to play.

Omoregie was Concordia's last available player as four Golden Bears had fouled out, while Kragt played just seven minutes on the night with the game-winner being his only shot attempt.

The Golden Bears were led by senior Cole Olstad with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals before fouling out in 40 minutes of play. All five starters reached double-figures as Mike Yahnke had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and Bryndan Matthews narrowly missed a double-double with 19 points and nine rebounds (six offensive) with five assists and three steals.

The Dragons came out on fire, making 11 three-pointers in the first half as they scored 49 points while making only four two-point field goals.

But Concordia carved out some early advantages in the game that the Dragons would not be able to counter all evening as conditions for the upset became apparent as the game transpired.

Just 11 minutes into play, while the Golden Bears trailed 28-22 as MSUM had already buried 8-12 from the arc, Concordia had forced five MSUM turnovers while committing one for a 6-0 edge in points off turnovers. Later in the half with Concordia trailing 41-37, it was second chance points that had Concordia hanging in the game with an 8-0 edge as freshman Bryndan Matthews dropped in a put-back.

In the final tally, Concordia turned the ball over just eight times while forcing 14 which led to a 16-8 advantage off turnovers and 12-3 in fastbreak situations, and had a 17-12 edge on the offensive glass for a 19-12 margin in second chance scoring. The Golden Bears outscored the Dragons 44-22 in the paint as well, while converting 11 three-pointers (11-23, .474) to provide versatile scoring. MSUM countered with 16 three-pointers, but attempted 37.

While MSUM was hitting three-pointers at an alarming pace just as they did a year ago in Moorhead when former Dragon Jordan Riewer scored 28 in the first half en route to a 37-point performance on nine three-pointers, the Golden Bears were knocking down shots as well. Although at a less frequent pace, Concordia's 60.0 percent (6-10) first half long range shooting helped keep the game close along with the points off turnovers and second chance scoring.

Leading the first half three-point charge was Olstad who buried three three-pointers and had 18 of his team-high 21 points, adding two assists, two steals and a block at the break. Mandli was a key part of that with his distributing as he had six assists (no turnovers) while finding Olstad on the outside and Yahnke inside. Mandli also had eight points and five rebounds with a block in the first half.

Mandli finished the night with 14 points while redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz made four three-pointers while scoring 12 points in a career-high 44 minutes.

While the Golden Bears stayed within reach of the Dragons in the first half, Concordia didn't hold a first half lead and only had forced one tie in the opening minutes while the Dragons led by as many as 10 points (20-10) in the first six-plus minutes of play.

Concordia turned up the heat on the Dragons in the second half as back-to-back steals by Olstad and Matthews led to fastbreak dunks, first by Matthews on a feed from Olstad and then from Yahnke on a feed from Matthews. The big plays cut the Dragon lead to one, 54-53 with 15 minutes to play as Concordia's largest crowd of the year and largest student turnout started to provide a home court advantage.

The Golden Bear defense continued to slow the second ranked scoring offense in the league as the Dragons scored just seven points over the next seven minutes. With eight and a half minutes to play, the Golden Bears knotted the game at 65 for the first time since the early going as Josh Monroy finished in the lane on a feed from Olstad.

Monroy added eight points and four rebounds along with a key block in 16 minutes of play.

MSUM scored five straight points capped by a desparation three-pointer by Tyler Vaughn with time expiring on the shot clock and Ambriz providing blanket defense. Vaughn led the Dragons with 23 points including 5-10 three-point shooting, adding nine rebounds.

While that was a momentum play for the third-ranked Dragons, Ambriz responded on offense by sinking a three-pointer through a double team with contact on the other end as Concordia was determined to pull off the upset.

With under five minutes remaining, Matthews made two more big plays, finishing back-to-back fastbreaks in traffic to give Concordia its first lead, 72-71.

From there, Concordia gained momentum with Matthews finding Mandli in the paint with a minute to go with the senior big man finishing through contact and converting the three-point play for Concordia's largest lead, 81-77.

MSUM responded with a clutch three-pointer and a stop, but made just one of two at the foul line with five seconds left to leave the game tied. Matthews had a clean look at a fadeway in the corner in front of Concordia's bench at the horn that rimmed out, sending the game to overtime tied at 81.

In the first overtime, the Dragons appeared poised to escape with a win, finally taking the lead 83-81 after nearly a minute and a half of scoreless play. They led by as many as four before Yahnke found Monroy inside for a bucket with 2:08 left.

After MSUM made one of two at the line with just under two minutes to play, the teams played scoreless basketball until the closing seconds when Ambriz delivered a game tying three-pointer to keep Concordia's upset hopes alive.

The second overtime featured nine lead changes and one tie, with the lead changing hands twice in the final 10 seconds.