Senior point guard katie laviolette (manitowoc, wis.) picked the perfect time to snap out of her 1-9 shooting slump. She scored the last five points of the game, hitting two field goals and a free throw in the final 1:01 to propel #5 concordia university (23-1, 14-1 nsic) to a 71-70 victory at mccown gymnasium in winona, minn.

her three-point play with nine seconds to play put concordia ahead and winona state missed a last second three-pointer and put-back attempt.

the win for concordia also secured the nsic regular season championship outright, along with the top seed and home court advantage in the nsic tournament on march 1, with the semifinals and finals on march 7-8 at the top remaining seed.

late in the second half, concordia went on a 12-2 run behind the strong post play of senior center amanda behnke (eagan, minn.), who scored 10 of her game-high 29 points during the 3:28 stretch of play.

the run took a five point deficit, with cu trailing 58-53 with 7:59 left, to a 65-60 lead with 4:31 remaining.

senior guard kelly lund (new brighton, minn.) scored the other two points during the run and had 19 points on the night, 14 coming a near-flawless offensive first half (5-5 fg, 2-2 3fg, 2-2 ft).

but concordia went into a scoring drought after the 12-2 spurt as the warriors scored the next five points to tie the game with 2:54 to play.

on the next possession, behnke put in one of two at the line to reclaim the lead.

but a costly intentional foul by laviolette with 1:51 to play gave winona state two free throws and the ball.

molly anderson made both free throws to put winona state in the driver's seat. Anderson avenged for missing the front end of a one and one at the end of regulation in a tie game in the first meeting between the teams on jan. 12, which concordia ended up winning 83-79 in overtime.

ana wurtz scored the next three points for wsu on free throws to put the warriors ahead 70-66 with 1:13 to play.

that's when laviolette, one of the most prolific passers in ncaa division ii history (718 career assists, 12th d-ii history) decided to score instead of pass, hitting a jumper with 1:01 to play.

winona state was unable to convert on the offensive end and junior forward candace olstad (elgin, minn.) ripped down one of her seven defensive rebounds with :33 left and the golden bears called a timeout with :26 in the game.

with :11 to go, the ball went to the post to behnke, who was a point away from her career-high of 30 points. She missed the lay-up, but laviolette was there for the offensive rebound and the put-back, drawing the foul for the chance to convert the three-point play.

having also developed as one of the better free throw shooters in the nation (84.5%, 30th in ncaa division ii), she put in the go-ahead point with :09 to play.

after a wsu timeout, natalie gigler's missed three-point attempt was rebounded by anderson, who attempted a tip-in at the buzzer that didn't go down and the golden bears held on for their second close victory over the warriors of the season.

winona state failed to convert a field goal in the final 3:31.

concordia improves to 15-1 against winona state in the eight years under head coach paul fessler.

behnke was 12-16 from the floor and also had a team-high nine rebounds, playing 36 minutes.

laviolette finished 3-11 from the field after a 1-9 start. She also was perfect from the line in three attempts, had six rebounds and six assists in 38 minutes.

lund was 6-7 from the floor, 2-2 from three-point range and 5-6 at the line and had four rebounds and two steals.

winona state was led by four players in double-figures. Kelsey homewood had 15 points while molly anderson and jenny steffen each had 12 points.

steffen's 12 points led a wsu bench effort that outscored cu 23-7, with all seven points coming from jamie jones (so, g, mounds view, minn.). Concordia's bench was 2-11 shooting, hitting just 1-5 from behind the arc.

aside from behnke and lund, the golden bears shot just 24.2% (8-33).

concordia held on for the win despite making only 3-8 from three-point range despite averaging 8.5 on the season heading into the game, and also overcame a 69.6% (16-23) free throw shooting night.

the warriors, by comparison, made 8-17 (47.1%) from long range and 69.0% (20-29) from the stripe.

from the field, winona state was 21-51, while the golden bears countered by making five more shots in five more attempts (26-56), thanks in part to a 10-7 edge in offensive rebounds, committing one less turnover (13 to 14) and registering two more blocked shots (4 to 2).

they also held a 40-34 rebounding advantage which led to a 38-20 points in the paint advantage.

concordia has won five consecutive games and remains on the road tomorrow evening when they take on upper iowa at 6 p.m. In fayette, iowa.

box score - cu 71, winona state 70