Senior guard ashley smith couldn't miss on sunday afternoon as she connected on 14-16 of her shots and made 3-4 of her three-point attempts, accounting for 33 points to lead concordia university (18-9, 9-5 nsic) past bemidji state (13-14, 6-8 nsic) 93-78 at the bsu gymnasium in cu's final nsic regular season contest.

in a back and forth first half, the beavers took a 43-42 lead into halftime after six ties and six lead changes. The teams continued to jostle for the upper hand in the second half and bsu cut a five point concordia lead to two, 57-55 with 12:44 to play.

the bears then opened up a 12-2 run to take a 69-57 lead with 9:29 remaining. Bemidji state cut the gap back to six points, 82-76 with 3:30 left but the bears defense clamped down on the beavers, holding them to just two points in the final three and a half minutes.

smith also added seven rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block in 34 minutes. Sophomore amanda behnke and senior nakia carlisle each scored 15 points for concordia. Carlisle also had eight assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals in the contest.

sophomore point guard katie laviolette matched carlisle's eight assists, giving her a weekend total of 19. She also had six points and four rebounds.

the concordia bench was led by junior forward janine kuklis and her eight points and five rebounds while sophomore guard lindsey palmer added seven points.

the bears dominated down low, outscoring the beavers 54-24 in the paint and outrebounding them 35-29.

concordia returns to action on wednesday evening when they play host to southwest minnesota state in the 2006 nsic red baron women's basketball classic at 7 p.m. At the gangelhoff center. The mustangs have earned the #6 seed while concordia is slated with the #3 seed.