Junior center amanda behnke was unstoppable as she poured in a career-high 27 points and picked up her second double-double of the season with 10 rebounds, but it was not enough as concordia university (2-6) fell to #25 st. Cloud state (9-3) 77-71 on wednesday evening at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul.

behnke finished the evening 8-14 from the field and 11-12 at the free throw line and had three steals and one block but fouled out in 32 minutes of action.

she went toe-to-toe with senior all-american center erika quigley of scsu, who matched behnke's performance with 27 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots but committed six costly turnovers as the golden bears post defense had quigley frustrated despite the huge offensive statistics.

also pouring in a career-high was sophomore forward candace olstad who finished with 19 points on 7-11 shooting while adding five rebounds and three assists.

junior guard katie laviolette added a season-high 12 assists in the game and finished with five points, three steals and three rebounds while playing all 40 minutes for the golden bears.

the only other bear in double-figures was junior guard kelly lund who scored 15 points on 6-15 shooting in 31 minutes.

the big three scoring threats for concordia accounted for 61 of their 71 points on the evening.

the bears trailed by as much as seven in the half, 35-28 with 2:10 remaining but cut the deficit to three when c.olstad drained a three-pointer and then added a three-point play after a pair of quigley free throws. The scoring barage by c.olstad cut the score to 39-36 but scsu added a quigley layup to take a five point halftime lead.

the huskies sprinted out of the locker room in the second half to take a commanding 49-38 lead, their largest of the contest as they used an 8-2 run to put the bears in a whole with 18:18 to play.

concordia responded with six unanswered points as lund sparked cu with four of the six points. The bears would later cut the margin to two points, 52-50 following a pair of laviolette free throws as lund continued to scorch the huskies with five more points during the stretch.

scsu throttled the concordia threat by pushing the lead back to ten points, 66-56 with 7:55 remaining and seemingly swiping the momentum.

but the bears wouldn't give up as behnke scored eight consecutive points but had to take a seat when she picked up her fourth foul. Junior center whitney smetana came in and added a free throw to give concordia a 9-0 scoring run, cutting the score to 66-65 with 4:32 to play.

the huskies responded with four unanswered points before concordia eventually got the score back to a one point margin, 70-69 with 2:10 to play.

that was as close as the bears would come as st. Cloud state successfully closed out the contest in the final minutes as concordia was unable to convert a field goal in the last 2:10.

three-point shooting woes cost the bears as they finished 2-12 (16.7%)from behind the arc while scsu buried six three's in 18 chances (33.3%).

the bears were outrebounded in the game 47-34 but managed 12 offensive boards as they outscored the huskies 38-30 in the paint.

concordia continues the toughest part of their schedule on saturday, dec. 16 when they host #4 north dakota at 3:00 at the gangelhoff center.