BISMARCK, N.D. - Concordia-St. Paul (13-16) had its late season surge come to a close in the NSIC Sanford Health Tournament first round on Wednesday evening. The Golden Bears fell 76-72 to the University of Mary (18-11) in front of a rowdy 520 fans at McDowell Activity Center.

U-Mary has advanced to the NSIC Sanford Health Tournament quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls to face NSIC South Division second seed Minnesota State, who defeated Bemidji State 81-71 tonight in Mankato.

The Marauders snapped a number of Concordia streaks in the game as the Golden Bears entered the postseason surging. The team's top winning streak of the year was halted at five along with a three game road winning streak, six game winning streak against U-Mary and four game winning streak in Bismarck against the Marauders.

It was U-Mary's first win over Concordia since December 3, 2011 at Gangelhoff Center and the Marauders first win in Bismarck over Concordia since January 23, 2010.

Senior Shea Mandli led Concordia with 17 points in his final contest, making 5-9 from the floor and converting all seven free throw attempts. He also dished out four assists in a strong season in which he led the team in rebounding and was second on the team in assists and scoring.

Redshirt freshman Matt Ambriz continued to assault the nets down the stretch, making four more three-pointers to finish with 16 points with four assists and just one turnover in 37 minutes.

Seniors Cole Olstad and Mike Yahnke added 12 and eight points, respectively with Olstad securing six rebounds to Yahnke's four. Each distributed three assists.

Marquealis Edwards led U-Mary with 16 points on 5-8 shooting with six assists and three steals. Devan Douglas added 13 points and six rebounds and Isaac Lindquist scored 10 points, making U-Mary's last field goal with 6:10 to play in the game.

Concordia nearly erased a 13-point deficit with 6:10 to play by holding U-Mary scoreless over five and a half minutes and without a field goal the rest of the night.

Concordia had a pair possessions in the final minute with a chance to tie, trailing 73-70 after Shea Mandli hit a pair of free throws with 1:13 to play and drew a charge with 59 seconds left.

But U-Mary's Marquealis Edwards picked up his third steal for the Marauders on the ensuing possession and made a pair of free throws to push it back to five with 36 seconds to go.

A quick bucket for Concordia as Mandli found a cutting Bryndan Matthews for an open layup brought it back to three again, 75-72 with 24 seconds remaining and the Marauders missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to give Concordia another shot at it as Mike Yahnke rebounded with 14 seconds to go.

Senior Cole Olstad missed a contested game-tying three-pointer on the left wing with six seconds left, but the ball was deflected out by U-Mary giving Concordia another shot.

Off the inbounds pass, the Marauders quickly fouled with 2.9 seconds to go, putting Concordia in the tough spot of needing a missed second free throw and offensive rebound to get a quick possession.

After both free throws were off the mark, the Marauders rebounded and made one of two to seal the win.

While Concordia's 10-0 run down the stretch to get back in the game was big, it was hampered by U-Mary's ability to secure four offensive rebounds on three consecutive possessions to drain nearly three minutes off the clock, as Concordia managed just one bucket during that stretch on two possessions including a missed front end of a 1-and-1.

It was a key factor in Mary's ability to hold off a strong Concordia run at the end of the contest.

Concordia shot a strong 50.0 percent (26-52) from the field and 44.4 percent (8-18) from the arc while U-Mary was similar from the floor at 50.8 percent (31-61) and just 31.6 percent (6-19) from three.

But the Marauders had twice as many second chances with a 10-5 margin on the offensive glass for a 12-7 margin in second chances and forced two more turnovers (13-11) leading to a 17-15 edge in scoring on turnovers.

The game started with a frantic pace as the Marauders aimed to create opportunities through ball pressure early. While the strategy was successful for U-Mary in forcing four Golden Bear turnovers in the first three and a half minutes and leading to multiple fastbreak chances and a momentum dunk, Concordia was able to keep pace.

The teams combined for 26 points in the first five-plus minutes as U-Mary led 14-12 with 14:23 to play in the half.

The Marauders continued to keep up the pressure and opened up a 19-12 lead with 12:36 to go when Concordia made its first run of the contest with consecutive three-pointers by Diallo Powell and Matt Ambriz to pull the defense up, opening up the inside for layups by Mike Yahnke and Brandon McRoy.

The result was a 10-2 run and a 22-21 Concordia lead with 9:26 to play in the half. The teams traded baskets as the Golden Bears would also hold leads of 24-23 (8:49) and 26-25 (8:09) but wouldn't lead the rest of the night.

U-Mary made its biggest run of the half to break a 31-30 lead (5:23) to double-digits at 41-30 (2:55). Concordia would clip it to four before the Marauders went into the break up five (44-39).

In the first half, U-Mary's defensive pressure forced eight turnovers, but Concordia stayed in the game by assisting on 13 of 16 made field goals and shooting 59.3 percent (16-27) at the break. The Marauders committed just four first half turnovers and held a 13-9 edge in points off turnovers at the break.

Concordia scored on the opening possession of the second half to cut it to three before the Marauders pushed it back to double-digits (51-41) with seven straight points.

They moved the lead to 12 (60-48) with under 11 minutes left and to its largest margin of 13 (65-52) with under nine to play. They led by 13 points on four different points of the second half before Concordia's big closing run.

The game featured three ties and three lead changes, all coming in the first half.