The golden bears' nine point halftime lead was erased by a 9-0 run to start the second half by the mustangs to tie the score at 38 with 17:53 left in the game, but #5 concordia university (25-1, 16-1 nsic) took off on a 38-11 stretch of basketball that spanned nearly the next 13 minutes of action to put southwest minnesota state (12-14, 7-10 nsic) away in an 83-63 victory at home on friday evening at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul, minn.

concordia's 38-11 run included a string of 12 unanswered points in response to smsu's 9-0 start to the second half. The 12 point spurt last just over three and a half minutes and was sparked by senior center amanda behnke (pictured above left, eagan, minn.), who scored six of her game-high 20 points in the span of action.

leading 56-46 with 9:50 to play in the game, concordia put the mustangs away by outscoring smsu 20-3 over the next five minutes to take their largest lead, 76-49.

the game started with senior guard kelly lund (pictured right, new brighton, minn.) draining a three-pointer 45 seconds into the action. Lund came into the game averaging 20.0 points over her last the last four and would go on to score 11 in the game, eight coming in the first half.

smsu took their first of two leads in the game at the 16:36 mark when liz grider hit a jumper to put smsu ahead 6-5. They took their second lead at 14:47 when abby oakland plugged a three-pointer to give the mustangs an 11-10 lead.

it was smsu's last lead, however, as the golden bears scored the next 10 points to grab a 20-11 lead.

the mustangs cut the gap back to four, 22-18 when concordia stormed the deficit back to 13, 31-18 with 6:10 to play in the first half.

but a late 9-1 run by smsu brought the game back within reach at 34-29 inside of a minute left to the break. Concordia held on to a nine point halftime lead, 38-29.

in the first half, three players combined to outscore the mustangs, with behnke leading the way with 12 points before the break while senior point guard katie laviolette (pictured left, manitowoc, wis.) added 11 and lund scored eight.

for smsu to score the first nine points of the second half, it brought their total run to 21-8 over a stretch of play that lasted eight minutes and 17 seconds.

behnke's 20 points came on 8-14 shooting and she pulled down eight rebounds and had three steals and a block in 26 minutes.

laviolette finished the game with 18 points, leaving her just one shy of 1,000 points. She also dished out eight assists, had six rebounds and three steals. The nation's leader in assist-turnover ratio continued to solidify her standing as the leader, with a 4-1 ratio in tonight's game, committing just two turnovers. She shot 5-8 from the floor and 8-10 at the line.

one of the better three-point shooting teams in the nation, concordia scorched the nets with a 54.5% (6-11) three-point pct. On the evening, including a solid 5-7 showing in the second half. They held smsu to 31.3% (5-16) three-point shooting in the process.

the sharp shooter of the evening was senior guard megan kirchenwitz (oconomowoc, wis.), who hit 3-4 from long range and finished with nine points in nine minutes off the bench.

concordia's defense once again held their opponent under 40.0% shooting as the mustangs converted just 37.1% (23-62) from the floor.

heidi kimmes was the exception for smsu, shooting 8-14 from the field to account for 17 points and seven rebounds. She also had three blocks and was smsu's only player to score in double-figures.

the golden bears committed only nine team turnovers in the game while dishing out 18 assists. They had 11 steals to smsu's four.

concordia, now on a seven game winning streak, will close out the northern sun regular season tomorrow night when they host wayne state, who is tied for second in the league standings at 11-6 while posting an 18-8 overall mark.

concordia extends their home winning streak to 23, while improving their nsic home winning streak to 22 (includes postseason).