Men's Basketball Comes Up Short In First-Ever Matchup With Concordia-St. Paul

Big Rapids, Mich. - For the second-straight day, the Ferris State University men's basketball team played a strong Division II opponent away from home, but fell short as the Bulldogs suffered a 79-57 setback to Concordia-St. Paul on Sunday (Nov. 24) afternoon to wrap-up crossover play in Winona, Minn.

FSU, which fell to perennial Division II power and host Winona State on Saturday in the weekend opener at McCown Gymnasium, trailed by only three points with 7:25 to play in a close first half before the Golden Bears surged ahead by 10 at the break.

The Concordia-St. Paul advantage grew to 17 points approximately six minutes into the second half and the Bulldogs never could recover as the Golden Bears pulled out the win. They bolstered their lineup in the offseason with the addition of five transfer players and improved to 3-1 on the year with the victory.

Turnovers and a low shooting percentage worked against the Bulldogs as FSU had 16 miscues to only eight for Concordia in the contest. The Bulldogs were also limited to only 30.9% shooting for the day, which included a three-of-23 (13%) figure from three-point range.

Meanwhile, the Golden Bears hit on 39.7% of their field goal tries and made 11-of-24 (45.8%) three's in earning the neutral site victory in their home state.  Concordia was 18-of-21 (85.7%) at the free throw line versus FSU's 20-of-26 (76.9%) showing.

Sophomore center Jared Stolicker and sophomore forward Josh Fleming both paced FSU with 11 points each in the contest, but were the lone Bulldog players to reach double-digit scoring. FSU also received nine points from junior guard Dietrich Lever along with seven by junior guard Drew Lehman.

Concordia-St. Paul was paced by Terez VanPelt's game-high 19 points. Cole Olstad added 17 points with both Travon Mitchell and Keith Crockett netting 13 points each in the first-ever series' matchup between the two schools.

The Golden Bears owned a slim 43-30 rebounding margin with both teams grabbing 12 offensive boards in the outing. Stolicker led the Bulldogs with seven boards while Mike Yahnke also had seven for Concordia.  CSP also dished out 13 assists to 10 for Ferris State and came away with seven steals in comparison to two by the Bulldogs.

Lever, Stolicker and Lehman each had two assists for Ferris State in the setback as the Bulldogs fell to 0-3 on the year after three tough contests on the road against top Division II competition this week.

Ferris State returns home and will open Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) play following the Thanksgiving holiday at Jim Wink Arena versus Lake Erie on Thursday, Dec. 5, in Big Rapids. Tipoff for the home and conference opener is set for 8 p.m. (ET) as part of the evening doubleheader.