The golden bears started slow, but nearly led from wire-to-wire and used a 17-1 second half run to pull away from southwest minnesota state (12-16) in a 66-50 victory in the nsic women's basketball tournament quarterfinals. The top seed and host #8 concordia university (26-2) advances to the semifinal round where they will attempt to redeem their mid-season loss to msu moorhead, the no. 5 seed on friday night at 8:00 p.m. At the gangelhoff center. Concordia will host the remainder of the tournament.

the golden bears and mustangs were scoreless for over two minutes until smsu claimed their only lead of the game when abby oakland hit a jumper at the 17:39 mark. Senior kelly lund (new brighton, minn.) hit a pair of free throws at 17:20 to put concordia on the board.

cu finally hit their first field goal of the game when senior mary schroeder (minneapolis, minn.) delivered a three-pointer at 16:54.

concordia never relinquished their lead, although the mustangs' defense stifled the cu offense for much of the first half as the golden bears managed to make just four of their first 24 shots (16.7%), three of them from behind the arc, in the opening 8:22 of play.

junior forward jessica tewes (hudson, wis.) finally delivered a lay-up to give cu their fifth field goal of the game.

concordia led by as much as nine points, 23-14 (5:25) in the first half and went into the break leading by seven, 31-24 despite shooting just 29.0% (9-31) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

they got things going early in the second half, scoring the first six points to take a 37-24 lead with 17:41 to play.

southwest minnesota state ramped up their defensive pressure as they would force 18 turnovers in the second half, 26 for the game, to cut the once commanding double-digit lead down to just two points, 45-43 with 8:08 remaining.

smsu even had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but senior point guard katie laviolette (manitowoc, wis.) stole a pass from sara leidall and was fouled on her breakaway lay-up attempt, making one of two at the line.

smsu never recovered as the free throw by laviolette opened up the 17-1 run that spanned nearly six minutes of play, putting the game out of reach with concordia leading by their largest margin of 18 points, 66-48 with 1:09 to play.

concordia's shooting was significantly better in the second half, as they converted 55.6% from the floor but were only able to attempt 18 shots as the 18 turnovers took the ball out of their hands.

junior forward candace olstad (elgin, minn.) finished the night by making five of her last six from the field after starting the game 0-7. She led concordia with 17 points and eight rebounds and also had a pair of blocks. She was 7-8 at the stripe as well.

laviolette was also 7-8 at the line and had 15 points on 4-5 shooting along with seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks.

c.olstad and laviolette's free throw shooting summed up concordia's win as the team shot 77.4% from the line, but scored 24 of their 66 points 31 attempts.

concordia's defense also continued its strong play, holding smsu to just 28.8% (17-59) shooting and without their leading scorer leidall (7-15) factored in, the mustangs were just 10-44 from the field as a team. Leidall finished one shy of her season-high with 19 points, hitting 3-4 from behind the arc.

the golden bears also dominated the glass, out rebounding smsu 47-29, led by senior center amanda behnke (eagan, minn.) who collected 12 rebounds, six on the offensive glass.

while concordia's offense committed 26 turnovers, they also forced 22 and had eight blocked shots.

the win sets up a rematch against the dragons, who earlier this season defeated concordia, ranked no. 2 at the time, for the first time, ending cu's school-record 18 game winning streak and derailing their pursuit of an undefeated season.

box score - cu 66, sw mn state 50