Junior center amanda behnke, who is the reigning two-time nsic player of the week, continued her torrid scoring streak on saturday evening, pouring in 26 points on 10-12 shooting to lead concordia university (5-7) to a 71-59 victory over minnesota state university, mankato (11-2) at the gangelhoff center. The win for the bears is third consecutive and puts an end to the mavericks nine game winning streak. Concordia is now 7-0 against msu under head coach paul fessler in his seven seasons with the club.

concordia grabbed the first lead early with a layup by behnke and sprinted out to a 17-6 lead in the first six minutes. The bears started a perfect 8-8 from the field and grabbed offensive rebounds on their first two misses as they dictated the game early. The mavericks would never tie or reclaim the lead in the ballgame as concordia swelled the lead to as much as 15 points on multiple occasions.

behnke was also 6-8 at the foul line, grabbed six rebounds and had two steals for the golden bears. She was set up consistently all evening by junior point guard katie laviolette, who recorded 13 assists while adding six points and four rebounds in 38 minutes.

in the last five games, behnke is averaging 25.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and is shooting 58.7% (44-75) from the field and 82.2% (37-45) at the line. In that same span, laviolette is averaging 10.0 assists per game while scoring 7.0 points, grabbing 4.8 rebounds and committing just 15 total turnovers as the duo has led the bears to three consecutive victories.

the only other bear to reach double-figures was freshman guard jamie jones, who added 13 points and five rebounds. Junior guard kelly lund had nine points and pulled down eight rebounds while adding three blocks. Junior center whitney smetana was a force in the first half, collecting eight rebounds and four blocks in 13 minutes and would finish with the same totals in 17 total minutes.

the bears outrebounded the mavs 43-31 and held a 30-20 edge in points in the paint while using a 7-2 margin in blocked shots to dictate play down low.

concordia finished the game 51.0% (26-51) from the field after shooting 65.5% (19-29) in the opening half. The bear defense held the mavericks to 33.8% (22-65) shooting for the game, which helped concordia overcome a -9 turnover differential as they committed 21 while forcing 12.

the golden bears return to action next weekend in northern sun action. They will put their 2-1 conference record on the line when they host the university of mary (n.d.) and 13th-ranked northern state on friday and saturday, january 5th and 6th at the gangelhoff center. Both tip-offs are scheduled for 6:00.