MINOT, N.D. - In a challenging road environment to compete in combined with the longest road trip of the conference slate, Concordia-St. Paul (8-15, 5-12 NSIC) wasn't able to overcome host Minot State (11-12, 6-11 NSIC) in an 81-67 road loss at the Minot State Dome. Concordia will head to nearby Bismarck, N.D. on Saturday at 6 p.m. at U-Mary.

In a spacious arena that holds a 10,000 spectator capacity crowd but carried an announced attendance of 1,331 on Friday night, Concordia-St. Paul fell behind early in its venture 508 miles away from Gangelhoff Center. The Beavers scored the first five points of the game and built a 13-point margin (28-15) 12 minutes into the contest.

Although Minot State led the entire night, the Golden Bears would claw back into the contest despite the slow start, cutting the deficit to six (33-27) with two minutes to go in the half as Diallo Powell connected on a three-pointer off a feed from Bryndan Matthews.

Powell's three-pointer was his first bucket of the night as he finished with 11 points while playing 24 minutes off the bench. Matthews had all four of his assists in the first half as he finished the game with eight points and eight rebounds.

Minot State came out strong on its home court, making 8-15 from the arc in the first half (53.3%) while committing just five turnovers. Concordia struggled from the arc at 3-10 (30.0%) in the first half, but was strong inside of it by making 10-18 (55.6%) from two-point range for a strong 16-6 advantage in the paint. Minot State was just 6-18 (33.3%) inside the arc, by contrast.

But the points in the paint didn't materialize into trips to the foul line where Concordia was 0-1 in the half despite the inside scoring edge.

After Concordia cut it to a six point game late in the half, Minot knocked down one of its eight first half three-pointers to end the half with a nine point lead and scored the first four points of the second half for a 7-0 surge to claim its largest lead to that point of the game at 14, 43-29 early in the second.

Mike Yahnke answered by connecting on a three-pointer and a jumper as his outside game has picked up in the second half of the season. Matthews added a jumper on a feed from Yahnke for a 7-0 counter by the Golden Bears.

Yahnke led Concordia with 13 points on the night, hitting 6-10 from the field.

The Minot State lead hovered in that same 7-to-12 point range for the next 10 minutes of the half when Concordia looked to rekindle its magic against the North Division from last weekend. Trailing by 11 (63-52) with 9:42 to play, Concordia's defense clamped down by holding the Beavers scoreless for the next three minutes while Shea Mandli scored in the lane followed by five straight points from Powell to cut the gap to just four points, 63-59 with 7:21 to go.

Minot State finally snapped its scoring spell with six and a half minutes with a pair of free throws. The Beavers would go five and a half minutes without a field goal, but converted eight consecutive free throws during that span to hold their lead.

But the Beavers held on, scoring six in a row and later using a 10-0 run as part of a larger stretch where Minot outscored Concordia 16-3 in five and a half minutes to take a 79-62 lead with under two minutes to go to put the game away.

Matt Ambriz was Concordia's third player in double-figures with 11 points, hitting three three-pointers in the game while making his third straight start in the Golden Bear backcourt.

Four Beavers reached double-figures led by Winston Williams' 18 and Michael Pelo's 17 points off the bench as Minot State's bench outscored Concordia's 40-19 in the game. Chris Davis added 15 points and Tyler Rudolph had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Minot State would finish the night 50.0 percent (11-22) from the arc and 90.0 percent (18-20) from the foul line while Concordia would hit 31.8 percent (7-22) from three and attempt just nine free throws (6-9) in the game.