amanda behnke led cu with 14 points

the concordia university women's basketball team (7-7, 4-1 nsic) put together their second-straight balanced offensive attack, draining a season-high 12 three-point field goals to defeat #12 northern state (11-4, 4-2 nsic) 72-67 on saturday evening at the gangelhoff center.

the golden bears held an eight point lead, 70-62 with 1:59 to play when sophomore forward candace olstad converted a pair of free throws. She would finish with nine points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.

on the wolves next possession, junior guard kelly lund fouled miranda boepple on a three-point attempt. Boepple converted two of three but noelle hall grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked the ball back out to boepple on the wing. Boepple pulled up for another trey and was fouled again, this time by junior guard mary schroeder.

boepple hit all three of her free throws the second time, giving northern state a five point possession to cut the score to 70-67 with 1:26 to play.

a fierce nsu press forced a turnover but hall misfired a jumper and lund came down with the rebound.

after a cu timeout in the face of the wolves' press, c.olstad's three as the shot clock was expiring was blocked by hall at the top of the key and concordia turned the ball over when the shot clock expired, giving the wolves another possession with 31 seconds left with a chance to tie the score.

nsu's kimberly lewis missed a three-pointer and junior center whitney smetana (right) collected the rebound and was fouled immediately.

smetana converted the free throws to extend the lead to five with 15 seconds to all but clinch the contest for concordia. She finished with two points and six rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench.

in a close game, there were only two lead changes and one tie with neither team leading by more than 10, a 48-38 lead with 16:55 to play in the second half. Northern state led by as much as eight, 10-2 with 17:05 but a 10-2 run by the golden bears forced the game's only tie.

the bears were led by junior center amanda behnke, who put in 14 points on 5-8 shooting with perfect 4-4 free throw shooting. She also had four rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes before fouling out of the contest.

lund (left), who was held scoreless in the first half on 0-3 shooting, came on strong in the second half, knocking down three three-pointers while finishing with 11 points on 3-8 shooting. She also had four rebounds and a block.

freshman forward kali olstad came off the bench to spark concordia's offense with four three-pointers in six attempts. She finished with 12 points in 18 minutes. Sophomore forward abby nielsen joined in on the three-point shooting, connecting on both of her attempts to finish with six points in nine minutes.

junior point guard katie laviolette (right), third in the nation in assists per game, dished out seven assists and had seven points and three steals. The starting lineup, who scored 53 of concordia's 60 points the previous night, scored 50 of 72 points in this victory with all five players scoring at least seven.

the bears finished 46.2% (24-52) from the field and from three-point territory (12-26) while executing at the stripe with a 85.7% (12-14) pct. Nsu was held to 36.5% (19-52) shooting but outscored the bears 21-12 at the free throw line, hitting 84.0% (21-25) at the stripe.

the golden bears are currently in a four-way tie for first place in the northern sun standings along with msu moorhead, bemidji state and winona state. The bears and warriors square off in a pivotal nsic matchup next friday, january 12 before traveling to upper iowa the following night.

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