FAYETTE, Iowa - Concordia-St. Paul (10-15, 7-12 NSIC) used a strong second half defensive effort to pick up an 87-79 win at Dorman Gym over Upper Iowa (14-14, 10-9 NSIC) on Friday night.

After starting league play with eight straight road losses, Concordia has recovered with back-to-back road wins heading into the regular season road finale tomorrow at Winona State (13-10, 12-7 NSIC) for a 6 p.m. tip at McCown Gymnasium.

Senior Cole Olstad scored 21 points with eight rebounds in the game and became the fourth player in team history to reach the 1,400 point milestone. He's now 23 points shy of tying Jeff Chamberlain (1993-97) for third on the all-time list with 1,443 points. Olstad was 5-10 from the floor and 10-11 at the foul line.

Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz had a strong performance as well, connecting on four three-pointers (4-7) and scoring 17 points with five assists. He's buried three or more three-pointers in five straight games and in six of the last seven.

In the first meeting between Concordia and Upper Iowa, the Peacocks shot 59.3 percent (35-59) from the floor and knocked down 15 three-pointers (15-26, .577) to defeat Concordia 103-80 at Gangelhoff Center.

Tonight, Upper Iowa came out hot again, going on a 15-4 run to turn a one-point Concordia lead (14-13) into an 11-point UIU lead (28-17) with just under eight minutes to go in the first half.

Although freshman reserve forward Brandon McRoy scored seven consecutive points on his own to cut the margin back to four, the Peacocks responded with two more three-pointers as UIU had hit six of 10 from the arc in the first 15 minutes of the game.

McRoy scored eight on the night in efficient fashion as he attempted just two field goals (1-2), made his only three attempt and was 5-6 at the line.

Upper Iowa shot a solid 45.7 percent (16-35) in the first half while making half of its 14 three-pointers for a 44-39 halftime lead.

UIU started the second half by continuing the trend, forcing a Concordia turnover and hitting a three-pointer to extend the lead back to eight, 47-39.

That's when Matt Ambriz took over as he helped Concordia go on an 18-5 run by hitting three three-pointers and dishing out a pair of assists for a 57-52 lead (15:05). He added two more free throws and had 17 points to put Concordia ahead 59-54 with 13:44 to play.

Upper Iowa would reclaim the lead as Concordia's offense stalled in the middle of the second half.

The Golden Bears went scoreless for over four minutes of action when Cole Olstad took over to pull the Golden Bears out of the slump, with his layup putting the squad ahead 61-60 with 9:24 to go.

It started a stretch during which Olstad scored six points in a 12-3 run as Concordia's defense clamped down.

The Golden Bears held the Peacocks to just three points over a seven minute-plus period from the 11:26 mark to 4:19 to claim their largest lead at that point of the night at eight (71-63).

The Upper Iowa drought was even more pronounced down the stretch. After Upper Iowa took a 63-61 lead with 8:17 to play, Concordia held UIU just six points over nearly a seven and a half minutes as the Golden Bears went on a 19-6 run to take an 80-69 lead into the final minute of play.

Between the two defensive strongholds, Concordia stifled Upper Iowa to just nine points on its home nets over an 11 and a half minute stretch of basketball.

Despite scoring 10 points in the last minute at a frantic pace, Upper Iowa managed to shoot just 32.4 percent (12-37) in the second half and 27.8 percent (5-18) from the arc.

The Golden Bears countered with an efficient second half at 50.0 percent (14-28) from the field and 42.9 percent (3-7) from three.

Offensively, it was a consistent shooting performance overall for Concordia in the two halves as the team went 47.3 percent (26-55) from the field and 50.0 percent (7-14) from three in the contest.

While Concordia committed twice as many turnovers (18) as Upper Iowa (9), the Golden Bears compensated by getting to the foul line consistently with 41 attempts compared to UIU's 19 as the aggressive play paid off with a 28-11 scoring margin at the line.

Joining Olstad and Ambriz in double-figres were Bryndan Matthews with 14 points and Shea Mandli with 13. Diallo Powell matched McRoy's bench scoring with eight points.

Matthews added eight rebounds while Mike Yahnke led the team with 11 as Concorida beat up UIU on the glass with a 47-31 rebounding margin.

Despite the big second half defensive surge, Concordia still only managed to hold the lead for 35 percent of the game (13:59 of 40:00) while Upper Iowa led for nearly 60 percent (58.5, 23:25) of the action.

The Peacocks were led by Carson Parker's 16 points and seven assists while Jimmy Roth added 13 points and Josh Weeber had 12 off the bench. Only one player (Parker) had five rebounds while all other UIU players had three or less.