minneapolis, minn. - the concordia university women's basketball team stood its ground in an exhibition game against the university of minnesota on sunday afternoon. The golden bears out-scored the gophers 37-34 in the second half, with the u ultimately taking a 69-54 win. Concordia, picked third in the nsic preseason poll, opens the 2008-09 season at the disney tip-off classic in anaheim, calif. Next weekend.

this afternoon's exhibition game provided the golden bears, who have many new players on the roster this season, to test the water against the best team in the state. After a rocky first half and down by as many as 22 points early in the second half, the golden bears settled into the game and got to within 12 points, 56-44 around the six minute mark.

zoraa quoie was 6-of-14 from the field and led the golden bears with 15 points. Gillian bjerke battled with the gopher bigs all game and walked away with a double double, ten points and 12 boards. Jamie jones led all players with six assists and also had six points. Kali olstad dropped in the team's first nine points of the game from a trio of long range shots. Also strong in her first appearance in a cu jersey was kelly supernaw, who finished with eight points. The team shot 33.9% from the field.

the largest disparity between the teams came in the overall size of the minnesota golden gophers, leading to minnesota's demanding 57-38 advantage on the boards. Four u of m players finished in double figures for scoring, topped by emily fox with 15 points and katie ohm with 14. The gophers shot 34.3% from the field.

concordia heads to anaheim, calif. For three games next weekend. They tip the season off against central washington on nov. 7 and continue with meetings against cal poly pomona and the university of indianapolis on the 8th and 9th.