st. Paul, minn. - #13 minnesota state moorhead overtook concordia university in the final two minutes of a saturday nsic contest to sneak out a 67-64 win. The golden bears led the majority of the game and had a season low six turnovers before they gave up their first conference loss of the season (8-3, 3-1 nsic). The dragons remain undefeated at 10-0 on the season and 4-0 in the league.
the golden bears were held to just one field goal in the final three minutes of the game, opening the door for the dragons to overtake the lead and hang on for the decision. Jumpers from alison nash-gerlach and meghan rettke gave msu moorhead their largest lead of the game, 65-62 with just over a minute to play. Concordia put in a runner to close to within a point, but could not hit the shots needed to give msum their first season loss.
the teams were cool shooting in the first half, the golden bears hitting 11-of-36 shots for 30.6% and the dragons going 9-of-28 from the field for 32.1%. Concordia started the game with a 7-0 run and did not give up the edge for the remainder of the half. The dragons threatened around the midpoint of the period after netting back-to-back threes and putting in a free throw to set the score at 15-13.
senior candace olstad kept the golden bears in the game with three of the team's next four field goals, all of which came in the paint. Scoring 12 points off of msum first half turnovers while not giving up a bucket due to turnovers of their own, the golden bears went into the locker room with a 30-28 lead.
the lid on the bucket was removed early in the second half. kali olstad put in a three-point shot and two jumpers in the first two and a half minutes, but the dragons answered with shots of their own to keep the score close. Nash-gerlach and rettke scored the next six straight points to put msum up 41-39 with 15:42 to play.
the lead went back to the golden bears with a zoraa quoie three-point play and a drained long range shot from abby nielsen. A 13-2 concordia streak that spanned five minutes gave cu a comfortable 54-46 edge at the 9:46 mark, but the dragons came back with the next eight points to tie the game for the fifth time.
going down to the wire, concordia relied on strong defense to counter a cooled offense. The golden bears stopped the dragons with a shot clock violation and hit a quoie triple to lead 62-61 at the 3:08 mark. Despite solid efforts to hold the dragons down the stretch, a single cu field goal in the remaining time allowed the dragons to come out on top, 67-64.
jamie jones had a team high 14 points and four assists for the concordia cause. Kali olstad and quoie each had 12 points, while candace olstad put in 11 points. gillian bjerke marked her second consecutive double-double with 11 points and ten boards. The golden bears shot 35.9% from the field (23-64), dominating play in the paint 30-16.
msu moorhead edged cu with a 37.3% field goal mark. Their long range game heated up in the second half as they totaled ten threes in the game. Krista opheim was 4-of-4 from long range and had 14 points for msum. The team's leading scorer was nash-gerlach with 15 points, also adding nine boards. Rettke had 12 points and 11 boards. The dragons won the battle on the boards for the tenth straight game, 43-36.
concordia returns to play at the gangelhoff center next weekend, hosting lynn university and valley city state at the golden bear holiday classic december 20-21. Both games start at 3:00 pm.
