The Concordia College Hornets had a late lead, but stumbled down the stretch, as they fell 75-68 to the Tougaloo College Bulldogs at home on Thursday.

Fredrick Summers, head men’s basketball coach of Concordia College (0-16), said his team just made too many mistakes in crunch time.

“Bad turnovers down the stretch killed us,” Summers said. “We had a chance to win the ball game. We played a good game for about 38 minutes. The last two minutes of the ball game, you can’t make those mental mistakes down the stretch.”

With the game tied at 57-57 with 5:43 left, Concordia’s Rafael Alvarado buried a 3-pointer to give the Hornets a 60-57 lead.

The Bulldogs (2-8) responded on their next trip down the court when Dawton Queiroz slammed it in to make it a 60-59 game with 4:27 left.

Trence Askew extended Concordia’s lead to 62-59 with a turnaround jumper just outside the paint, but Tougaloo’s Juan Gray hit a 3-pointer that tied the game at 62-62 with 4:04 remaining.

The Bulldogs maintained the momentum, as Gray buried another three to give them a 65-62 lead, but Alvarado hit a three of his own for Concordia to tie the game once more at 65-65 with 3:09 left.

But back-to-back baskets by Gray and Ramon Wesley gave the Bulldogs a 69-65 lead before Alvarado hit another three to make the score 69-68 with 2:05 left.

The Hornets went cold and Denzel Hardy hit a pair of baskets for the Bulldogs to push the lead to 73-68, as Concordia had to foul down the stretch to try and extend the game.

Gray led the Bulldogs with 18 points and Hardy had 15 points.

Travis Rasco led Concordia with 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Alvarado and Marcus Sutton each added 12 points for the Hornets.

The Hornets will take the floor again on Saturday at home against Freed Hardeman starting at 5 p.m.