ABERDEEN, S.D. – Looking for their second all-time win on the road at Northern State, Concordia-St. Paul secured 28 points on perfect 13-13 shooting from junior forward Japannah Kellogg, but the Golden Bears fell 94-89 in overtime to the Wolves (7-10, 5-6 NSIC) on Friday night at Wachs Arena in front of a rowdy 2,777 spectators who turned out to show their displeasure towards winter.
 
Concordia (8-9, 3-8 NSIC) will turn the page on South Dakota for the weekend and go hunting for an upset at #5 MSU Moorhead (16-1, 10-1 NSIC) on Saturday with a 5:30 p.m. tip-off at Nemzek Hall.
 
The Golden Bears led this contest for nearly two-thirds of the play, and trailed for less than 20 percent in a contest that featured a large lead of just seven points, a 65-58 CSP advantage with 8:21 to play in the contest. Northern State's largest margin was the final score, six points as the event featured 14 ties and 13 lead changes.
 
Concordia set the tone early, building a 6-0 lead in the opening three and a half minutes while stifling Northern State to 0-8 shooting to start the contest on their home nets. The early spurt by CSP featured a pair of dunks by Kellogg, who was abusive towards the Wachs Arena rims all evening on his way to the career-high scoring output.
 
His 13-for-13 performance tops CSP's Division II-era and recorded history for most made field goals without a miss, a feat that had been achieved with a minimum of eight on three occasions, with Isaiah Thomas holding the prior record at 9-9 against Judson University (Ill.) on December 18, 2009.
 
As the first half unfolded, it was clear that the game would continue on its course, with Concordia grabbing its first 7-point lead at 38-31 with 3:40 to play in the half before the Wolves closed strong before the break with Concordia hanging onto a 41-39 halftime lead.
 
In the first half, CSP out-shot NSU 56.3 percent (18-32) to 42.1 percent (16-38), but CSP managed to hit just two of its nine three-pointers while the Wolves were able to convert five times from deep on 15 attempts.
 
In the second half, Concordia extended its lead back to six in the early minutes on a pair of three-pointers for a 47-41 advantage.
 
Once again, Northern State answered, narrowing the gap to one point again, 49-48 with 16:33 to play but this time the momentum shifted towards the home team in a big way as senior guard Jordan Horn went down with an apparent injury and would not return.
 
Horn, who entered play leading the team with 21.7 points per game, finished the evening with 10 points and six rebounds with the Golden Bears holding a +7 in his 17:28 of action. His second of two assists on the night was a poetic feed in the lane set up another Kellogg dunk just a minute prior.
 
Their leading scorer sidelined, the team defense scrapped for a pair of stops, with Kellogg finishing in the lane once again for a 51-48 lead.
 
A quick 5-0 burst by the Wolves was the first of four lead changes in a three and a half minute stretch of play approaching the midway point of the second half. Trailing 58-57 after the Wolves buried a three-pointer, a pair of free throws by Marcus Skeete would be the fourth lead change of the sequence and opened up an 8-0 scoring stretch that put Concordia ahead 65-58, their second 7-point lead of the night, with just over eight minutes remaining.
 
Skeete had four points during the run as CSP held Northern State to 0-3 shooting (all three-point attempts) and a turnover, as CSP went 2-2 from the floor and 4-4 at the foul line to take charge.
 
Skeete finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists while clocking 43 minutes of playing time in a solid effort.
 
Concordia continued to hang onto its lead in hostile territory, 67-62 with just over six minutes to play as Reid Patterson fed Kellogg for another bucket in the paint, pushing him to 22 points on 11-11 shooting at that point in the night.
 
But the game continued along its course, as Northern State responded with an 8-0 run to sway the game back in its favor with a dunk of their own with 3:44 remaining.
 
The Golden Bears went back to Kellogg, who finished in the paint again, and converted the free throw for a 3-point play to snap the run and tie the game at 70 with 3:24 to go.
 
Despite the Wolves answering with a three-pointer, Patterson would add a three on the other end as CSP ran its fast-paced offense off the make, and with just over two minutes to go, Kellogg flushed another dunk, this time off Skeete's fifth assist, to put Concordia back on top, 75-73.
 
The teams traded 1-for-2 free throw shooting over the next minute, when the Wolves were able to get back to the line with just under a minute left, making both to tie it at 76, eventually heading to overtime knotted at 76.
 
In the overtime, it was freshman Ben Kopetzki's turn to step-up, as the Wolves scored the first three of the period before Kopetzki buried a three on a strong offensive sequence of passes, allowing Sean Matthieu to find him on open on the wing to tie it at 79.
 
Trailing by five with just over two and a half minutes to play, Kopetzki seized an opportunity, knifing through the lane unstopped. After a Northern State three-pointer, extending it to a 6-point margin (88-82), Kopetzki attacked the rim again, finishing to cut it to four with just under two minutes to play.
 
He answered again as NSU scored with 31 seconds to play, converting a reverse layup just seven seconds later to keep Concordia alive. And after a pair of free throws pushed it back to six, Kopetzki canned a three-pointer with nine seconds remaining – enough time for a steal and a three.
 
But the Wolves were able to get back to the foul line to put the game on ice.
 
Kopetzki scored 10 points in overtime, hitting a pair of three-pointers and getting to the rim three times. He finished with 17 points on the night, shooting 7-13 from the floor and 2-4 from three, adding five assists.
 
As a team, Concordia shot 51.4 percent (36-70) from the field and held Northern State to 40.5 percent shooting.
 
But the host Wolves were permitted to head to the foul line 19 more times than CSP, leading to a 15-point scoring margin at the stripe. CSP was 10-15 (66.7%) to NSU's 25-34 (73.5%), and the Wolves converted at the stripe when it mattered, making all 11 free throws in overtime and seven of their last eight in regulation.
 
Concordia is now 1-23 all-time in road games at Northern State, and 1-2 in overtime road games at Wachs Arena.
 
The Wolves were led in the game by Josh Dilling's 27 points while Augustin Reede scored 24 points including 13-14 from the foul line. Jacksen Moni added 21 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Northern State's starting five scored 92 of its 94 points while CSP had a strong bench performance with 27 points as Patterson and Chet Kloss supplemented Kopetzki's 17 points with five apiece.