SEWARD, Neb. -- Byron Thompson's 3-point attempt at the buzzer rolled just off the rim as time expired as Concordia University held on for a 86-83 victory over Nebraska Wesleyan on Wednesday night (Feb. 4) at the Walz Complex in Seward in GPAC men's basketball.

In a key game in the GPAC standings, the Bulldogs move up to sixth place in the league at 14-12, 7-9 GPAC while the Prairie Wolves fall to 9-11, 6-9 to sit in a three way tie for 7th place.

Thompson had a hand in several plays in the final seconds for the Prairie Wolves.  Trailing by four points, Thompson drove down the right side and made a layup while getting fouled to make the score 84-82 with 18.4 seconds remaining.  He made the free throw to convert the old fashioned three point play.

NWU attempted to steal the inbounds pass but was unsuccessful forcing them to foul.  With just five team fouls, the Prairie Wolves had to foul the Bulldogs twice.  Concordia moved the ball quickly before NWU finally fouled Joel Haywood with seven seconds remaining.  Haywood missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but Chandler Folkerts went over the NWU rebounder to tip the ball back to Haywood for the offensive rebound.  NWU then fouled him again with just under four seconds left.  This time he nailed both free throws to put the Bulldogs up by three. 

Thompson got the inbounds pass and drove all the way down the court for the game tying 3-point attempt but his shot from the right wing, rimmed out to end the game.

NWU took the lead with 2:31 remaining as Keithan Karn nailed a 3-pointer to put the Prairie Wolves up 80-78.  Unfortunately for NWU that set up two big shots for the Bulldogs.  Eli Ziegler nailed a 3-pointer to put Concordia ahead 81-80.  On NWU's next two
offensive possessions they turned the ball over, while Ziegler answered with another 3-pointer to go up four points.

Ziegler had a huge game for the Bulldogs as he scored 25 points on 7-12 shooting from 3-point range.  Haywood added 20 points with eight assists, while Chandler Folkerts scored 11 points with five rebounds.

NWU shot 49.2 percent from the floor for the game and made 12-27 from 3-point range.  They made only three 3-pointers in the second half.  A big struggle for Nebraska Wesleyan was turnovers as they had 18 for the game.

Trey Bardsley led three NWU players that scored over 20 points.  Bardsley finished with 22 points, but made just four free throws in the second half after scoring 18 in the first half.  He also committed eight turnovers.  Keithan Karn was 4-6 from 3-point range and finished with 20 points, while Travis Giesselmann had 20 points and eight rebounds.