ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (10-5, 6-5 NSIC) couldn't overcome Bemidji State's (9-6, 7-4 NSIC) three-point shooting on Saturday night, falling 82-71 to the Beavers at Gangelhoff Center.

The loss is Concordia's third-straight, coinciding with the switch in the schedule as the NSIC South Division Golden Bears have faced three NSIC North Division opponents since their win at previously unbeaten and #21 Minnesota State in early January.

The Golden Bears remain in the NSIC North crossover part of the schedule next weekend, heading out to North Dakota to face UMary on Friday and Minot State on Saturday. Game times will also be switched, with the women leading off the NSIC doubleheaders, followed by the men.

Freshman forward Lindsey Becher matched her season-high with 21 points on 10-21 shooting with a season-high nine rebounds, adding two blocked shots and two steals.

Sophomore forward Sydney Zgutowicz picked up her fourth double-double of the year, all in the last seven games, going for 14 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 6-9 from the field while adding six assists. She's reached double-digit rebounds six times this year and five of the last seven games.

League-leading Meghan DuBois added six more assists tonight while scoring 11 points with seven rebounds and Riley Wheatcraft had 14 points on 6-11 shooting.

The Golden Bear interior defense was strong against BSU's top offensive threat Rachel Heittola, who entered play averaging 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds. A 52.1 percent shooter from the floor and 40.0 three-point threat, Heittola was bottled up by CSP to nine points on 2-of-10 shooting with five rebounds and was blocked three times in 21 minutes.

The Golden Bears outscored the Beavers 48-38 in the paint and used a 12-3 edge on the offensive glass to a 9-0 margin in second chance scoring.

But the Beavers countered CSP's inside play by connecting for 45.0 percent from the arc with nine three-pointers while Concordia couldn't get hot from deep, hitting just 25.0 percent of its 16 three-point attempts to account for five fewer makes than BSU.

By halftime, the three-point difference was stark, as BSU had made five three-pointers while CSP hadn't connected from deep as BSU led 36-28. They pushed the lead to double-digits early in the third quarter before CSP climbed back into the contest.

Midway through the third quarter, CSP had hit a pair of three-pointers while keeping BSU scoreless from the arc, and suddenly found themselves down by one, 46-45. A layup by Zgutowicz gave CSP its first lead since 7:31 in the second quarter as CSP had outscored the Beavers 19-8 across nearly four minutes of play in the third quarter after the Beavers went up by 10.

During the stretch, Concordia was 7-11 from the field, made both of its three-point attempts and converted all three free throws with Becher taking control of the game for seven of her 21 points. Becher also finished in the lane following a Heittola bucket for a 49-48 lead with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter, but it was CSP's last lead of the night.

Bemidji State extended the lead back to 10 early in the fourth quarter, 66-56 but Concordia had one more strong run coming, scoring the next eight points with four coming from freshman Megan Gamble to cut the margin back to two with 4:20 to go.

From there, Concordia turned it over three times in a row with a 68-64 deficit despite keeping Bemidji State scoreless over the same duration, missing an opportunity to tie or reclaim the lead. BSU guard Trinity Yoder responded by making a layup. She finished with 17 points and eight assists to lead a BSU squad that had five players in double-figures despite their leading scorer on the season not being one of them.

After the Yoder layup with 2:18 to play made it a six-point game, Concordia pushed back as Zgutowicz found Becher in the lane for a bucket to pull within three, 71-68 with 1:30 left but the Beavers made a three-pointer on the other end with under 10 on the shot clock to rob the game of time and push the margin back to six with just over a minute to play.