MOORHEAD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's basketball team fell behind early and could not recover in a 73-61 loss to Concordia-Moorhead in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Tuesday evening at Memorial Auditorium.

Coming off of an 11-point win over No. 25-ranked Saint John's University, St. Olaf (3-1, 1-1 MIAC) never led on its way to suffering its first loss of the season at the hands of Concordia (1-3, 1-1 MIAC), which picked up its first victory of the young season. Four Cobbers scored in double figures in the win.

Fifth-year senior Nathan Hendler led the Oles with 13 points and also pulled down a team-high six rebounds in the loss, while first year Kobe Kirk added 11 points off the bench. Both Hendler and Kirk have scored in double figures in each of St. Olaf's four games this season.

The Cobbers held the Oles to just two points over the first 4:31 of the game as part of a 7-2 start before Hendler knocked down a three-pointer, as the fifth-year senior accounted for the first seven points in the game for St. Olaf. After Hendler's three-pointer, Concordia made four-straight shots to open up a 16-9 advantage.

Later in the half, a Jackson Jangula three-pointer with 10:21 to go gave the hosts a double-digit-point lead at 21-11, but the Oles responded with a layup by senior Josh Albers and a Kirk three-pointer to get it back down to five. A layup by Kirk with 1:28 remaining in the half again made it a five-point game, but Concordia scored the final four points of the half to take a 35-26 lead into the locker room.

With the Oles still within five, the Cobbers went on a 7-0 run – punctuated by a dunk by Rowan Nelson – early in the second half to push their lead to 44-32 and led by double figures the rest of the way. First years Ryan Warren and Sebastian Loder both scored the first points of their collegiate careers in the final two-plus minutes for St. Olaf.

Jangula had a game-high 17 points on 4-for-7 shooting from the field and knocked down all eight of his free throws for the Cobbers, who shot 47.1 percent (24-for-51) in the win. Concordia also committed just four turnovers and held a 17-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

St. Olaf looks to bounce back with a home game against Saint Mary's University (Minn.) on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.