The concordia women's basketball season came to an end saturday night with a 96-89 loss to st. Cloud state in the semifinals of the ncaa north central regional in grand forks. The bears, who trailed 51-39 at the half cut the lead to one at 72-71 with 8:21 to play in the game, but would come no closer.

the three seniors: ashley smith, nakia carlisle and rikiee ellis led the way for the bears as they played their last games for in a concordia uniform.

"all three played exceptional." said coach fessler. "you can tell the seniors didn't want career come to an end. Ellis had eight points and she averages two. Smith (left), was outstanding. She has never not been to ncaa tournament, never not won 20 games. There's not many players who can say that."

smith led the bears with 29 points on 9-15 shooting, including 5-6 from three point range and 6-7 from the free throw line. Smith ends her career with 1,389 points, ninth all-time in scoring at cu.

carlisle (right) fouled out with 1:44 to play, but finished with 13 points, four assists and three steals. She finishes her career with a 13.6 scoring average and 841 points in just two seasons. Ellis (left) finished with eight points in the game and 141 points for her career.

amanda behnke had 18 points and a team-high six rebounds and katie laviolette scored 11 points and had six assists and two steals.

a night after outrebounding wayne state by 19, the bears were outrebounded 38-32. Concordia was unable to come up with an answer to the ncc player of the year erika quigley, who had 16 points and seven rebounds in the first half and finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds despite sitting nine minutes in the second half with foul trouble.

concordia shot 33-73 (45.2%) from the field, but st. Cloud state was 33-62 (53.2%) from the field. Both teams shot well from the free throw line, with st. Cloud state making 25-29 (86.2%) and concordia shooting 16-19 (84.2%).

the bears finish the season with a 20-11 overall record.