BISMARCK, N.D. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (2-17, 1-11 NSIC) was looking for back-to-back league victories on Friday night at the McDowell Activity Center, but came up short in the closing seconds of a 68-66 loss to the University of Mary (6-11, 5-7 NSIC).

Concordia leaves North Dakota's capital city and heads north to Minot State (11-4, 5-4 NSIC) for a 5:30 contest at the Minot State Dome on Saturday evening.

Elijah Ormiston had another big night, scoring 28 points on 13-of-18 shooting from the floor while collecting six rebounds. He's topped 20-plus points six straight games, eight of the last 11 and nine times overall this year.

The Golden Bears led for nearly three quarters of the contest and only trailed for 16 percent of the game, leading by as many as 14 points in the first half and carried an 8-point lead with under 10 minutes to play.

The Marauders chipped away at CSP's lead down the stretch with an 11-0 run while holding Concordia scoreless for over seven minutes of play, taking a 59-56 lead on Kam Warrens' dunk with 4:37 to go.

From there, the Golden Bears rallied back, as Jacob Everson connected on a three-pointer to snap the drought and tie the game at 59 with just over four minutes to play, and Ormiston scored in the the lane on an Everson feed to go back on top.

After the Marauders tied it back up, Everson scored in the lane again with Marcus Skeete picking up his sixth assist for a 63-61 lead with 2:45 to go. Everson finished with 10 points.

Once again, the Marauders answered, with Lucas Meyer scoring his second-straight game-tying bucket in the lane 22 seconds later.

After a scoreless minute with each team picking up a defensive stop, Jack Stensgaard launched a go-head three-pointer with 1:20 to go, giving Concordia the upper hand late.

Stensgaard finished with 11 points on the night, assisted on the play by Everson, his third of the game.

But once again, UMary had the answer, forcing another tie as Treyton Mattern connected for a three-pointer with just under a minute to go, his first made basket of the game.

After Concordia committed a turnover on its ensuing possession, the Golden Bears forced the miss by UMary at the rim with under 10 seconds to play, but Mayer cleaned it up with a tip-in with four seconds left and the 68-66 lead.

Just over a minute earlier, it was Stensgaard who put CSP ahead on a three-pointer, and he had another clean look at the horn from the right wing, but his game-winning shot from 25 feet rattled around the cylinder and out as time expired.

After a slow start in falling behind 8-0 , Concordia took control of play in the first half as an 11-0 run sparked a larger stretch of play during which Concordia outscored the Marauders 32-10 in building its largest lead of the night, 32-18 with 5:36 to play in the half following a Stensgaard dunk.

Ormiston scored 15 of his points during the extended run as CSP made 14-of-18 from the floor while holding the Marauders to 4-16 shooting including 0-3 from the arc.

By halftime, Concordia's lead was 40-33 on 63.0 percent (17-27) shooting while stifling UMary to 1-6 three-point shooting on their home nets.

In the final tally, Concordia finished off a strong shooting performance at 54.9 percent (28-51) overall and 35.0 percent (7-20) from three, but only went to the foul line five times (3-5), with UMary also only shooting seven free throws in the game (6-7)

While Ormiston had a big night offensively, Skeete joined him, Stensgaard and Everson in double-figures with 11 points to go with his six assists, five rebounds and two blocks. Stensgaard knocked down three from long range while George Scharlau led the bench with six points coming off of 2-4 three-point shooting.

Gertautas Urbonavicius led UMary with 20 points on 9-10 shooting and six rebounds while Warrens had 14 and Mayer had seven points on 6-8 shooting.