#15 concordia university (6-0, 2-0 nsic) used strong defense and timely runs to defeat the university of minnesota, crookston (4-5, 0-3 nsic) 83-45 on friday evening at the gangelhoff center. The golden bears held the golden eagles to 24.2% (15-62) shooting and 16.7% (3-18) three-point shooting and forced 23 turnovers.

concordia sprinted out to a 25-5 lead after a 20-1 run that spanned 4:07. Senior guard kelly lund, pictured left, (new brighton, minn.) scored eight points and drained a pair of three-pointers to spark the run that was capped off with 12:09 to play in the half on a jumper by senior center whitney smetana (merrifield, minn.).

that was the largest lead of the first half as umc cut the lead back to 12, 31-19 at the 5:18 mark.

concordia would head into the locker room ahead by 15, 39-24 behind 14 points by lund.

the defense took over as concordia opened the second half limiting umc to just two points in over 10 minutes until jamie zelinsky drilled a three for the golden eagles with 9:38 to play. Zelinsky would score a team-high 13 points.

the damage was done, however, as the golden bears scored 20 points during the span to take a commanding 33 point lead before the zelinsky three-pointer.

concordia would push the lead as high as 41 points, 79-38 when freshman latoya williams (minneapolis, minn.) converted a pair of free throws with 1:35 to play.

junior forward candace olstad, pictured right, (elgin, minn.) and lund would score 18 points apiece. C.olstad had five rebounds and was 7-11 from the floor and 4-5 from the line in 19 minutes while lund was 5-9 from the field, 3-6 from long range and 5-5 at the stripe. She also pulled down seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

those were the only two golden bears in double-figures, although senior point guard katie laviolette (manitowoc, wis.) narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and 11 assists. She added six rebounds and three steals.

senior center amanda behnke, below left, pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and for the first time all season failed to reach double-digits in scoring with five points, snapping a streak of 11 consecutive games with at least 12 points dating back to feb. 23, 2007 at wayne state.

she matched a team-high with five free throws made and reached the line a team-high seven times in the game, playing 21 minutes.

behnke was also held without a field goal for the first time in 33 games, dating back to nov. 28, 2006 at st. Cloud state when she played just nine minutes. It was just the third time in 69 career games that behnke has not converted a field goal.

behnke's work on the glass, however, led a dominant team effort in that department as cu outrebounded umc 59-37 and outscored the golden eagles 32-14 in the paint.

offensively, concordia shot 41.5% (27-65) and 45.0% (9-20) from three-point range. They got to the line often, hitting 69.0% (20-29).

all 13 of concordia's active players scored in the game and played at least four minutes and had at least one rebound or one assist.

the golden bears put their undefeated start on the line tomorrow evening when they host bemidji state university at 6 p.m.

amanda behnke will officially be presented with her 1,000 point ball at halftime of the men's game which will begin at 8 p.m. Behnke became the 20th player in concordia history to score 1,000 points last saturday, dec. 1 against msu moorhead and now has 1,025.

box score - cu 83, minn. Crookston 45