The #4 university of north dakota came out shooting while the golden bears had a slow start from the field in a 80-64 loss on saturday afternoon at the gangelhoff center.the loss for the bears drops them to 2-7 overall while the sioux improve to 14-1.

the difference in the game came from behind the arc and at the free throw line as the sioux made just one more field goal than the bears but outscored them 36-15 from three and 14-7 at the stripe, accounting for a 28 point difference which made up for und's poor two-point shooting (31.3%, 15-48).

in the first half, und used eight three-pointers at a 53.3% clip to jump out to a 41-25 halftime lead. Concordia shot just 30.3% (10-33) from the field against an aggressive sioux defense.

the bears came out strong in the second half and fought their way back into the game, cutting the deficit to seven, 50-43 with 14:10 to play thanks to a pair of 7-0 runs during a stretch in which cu outscored und 18-7 over a 5:13 stretch of action.

amanda behnke goes up for two of her 24 points (w.pitra)

amanda behnke and katie laviolette were nearly unstoppable in the second half as behnke scored 16 points courtesy of laviolette who had seven second half assists.

the fighting sioux responded to the cu second half scoring run by pushing the deficit back to 16, 69-53 with 7:50 to play. Concordia would come no closer than nine points behind just once the rest of the way as und's shooting outlasted the strong second half play of concordia.

the bears shot 51.6% (16-31) in the second half to finish 40.6% (26-64) from the field for the contest. The bear defense held the sioux to a 37.0% (27-73) field goal percentage.

whitney smetana rejects und's ashley langen (w.pitra)

concordia used another new starting lineup this season, starting their two junior centers in behnke and whitney smetana, who formed a strong defensive presence against one of the nation's top post duos, ashley langen and kierah kimbrough, who combined to average 28.3 points and 14.3 rebounds heading into the game.

behnke and smetana, along with concordia's other post players, shut down the pair as they combined for just 17 points and struggled mightily from the field, shooting a combined 5-20 and picking up just one block. Smetana and behnke combined for five blocked shots with smetana picking up three as the two had just three total fouls and stayed out of foul trouble.

the duo contributed to cu's 32-18 advantage in the paint but und out-muscled the bears on the glass, holding a 54-32 rebounding deficit with 28 of those on the offensive end with a 22-12 edge in second chance points.

behnke shined on the offensive end for the second consecutive game finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds. She was 9-16 from the field and a perfect 6-6 at the foul line while adding two assists, two blocks and a steal.

katie laviolette equaled her season- high 12 assists (w.pitra)

laviolette ended up with eight points and tied a season-high 12 assists while also picking up five rebounds in 39 minutes of action.

off the bench, the bears were led by freshman jamie jones who scored nine points, drilled a pair of three's and had three rebounds and two assists.

also contributing off the bench were mary schroeder with seven points and lindsey palmer with six. Palmer played a season-high 29 minutes for cu while schroeder had a pair of blocks, contributing to the bears 9-5 block effort.

the sioux were led by kayla bagaason's 17 points off the bench. Bagaason shot 7-10 from the field and 3-6 from three point range. Karla beck poured in 15 points, all on three's as she hit 5-8 from long range and finished 5-10 from the field. Carissa jahner, who started the game 0-8 from the field ended up with 13 points on 4-14 shooting and added seven rebounds and six assists in a team-high 35 minutes. Kimbrough and langen each had nine rebounds to lead und's 54 team rebounds.

the golden bears schedule doesn't get any easier as they have a two game series in the hoop 'n' surf classic in honolulu, hawaii on dec. 19-20 against holy family (penn.) and catawba (n.c.). Both teams are receiving votes in the national top 25.