st. Paul, minn. - concordia university head women's basketball coach paul fessler kick-started the 2009-10 season with his 200th ncaa win. The golden bears (1-0) took an 86-63 win over nebraska-kearney (0-1) at their annual wildwood lodge tip-off classic on friday afternoon. The team had an especially strong second half, out-scoring the lopers 46-27 to cushion the win. box score
"it's fun to have the 200th win come on our season opener. It means i have been here a long time," said fessler of his newly-reached milestone. "it means we've had a lot of really good players here to overcome my coaching," he joked.
fessler came into his 10th season with the golden bears as the 11th winningest active division ii coach (min 5 yrs as a dii head coach; includes career record at 4-year colleges only) with a winning percentage of .7184. With one game in the books this season, fessler has a 200-78 record at the ncaa level. In his head coaching career, fessler has put together a record of 301-96, including four seasons spent at anoka-ramsey community college.
concordia topped off the season opener with their first-ever win over the lopers of nebraska-kearney. The teams have met in two of the last three seasons with unk claiming both wins in tight games. Today's matchup saw the golden bears play a clean game, shooting 43.8% from the field and committing only 11 turnovers.
"we were a bit sloppy in the first half but played a much better second half," said fessler. "we showed we could do some good things."
the golden bears had a number of players take turns in the spotlight during the season opening win. jineen williams (jr., racine, wis. / uw-milwaukee) opened the first half with 11 points from the wing and four boards, while ashley viehauser (sr., minneapolis, minn.) secured the post game with eight points and seven rebounds. The second half belonged to guard maurika hickman (jr., minneapolis, minn. / uw-milwaukee), who hit five field goals to finish as the game's leading scorer with 18 points.
the game was tight throughout the first half with the golden bears unable to pull out a sizeable in the first period. The largest margin was a 10 point spread at the six minute mark, 26-16 following a williams layup, fed by hickman. The lopers then ran the court for a 9-1 stretch with three free throws from sarah ludwick drawing nebraska-kearney to within a point, 28-27. The golden bears went to viehauser for back-to-back buckets in the paint and led 40-36 at the half.
hickman took over in the second half with three straight buckets to give her golden bears a 55-46 lead at the 13:40 mark. With the help of teammate gillian bjerke (sr., detroit lakes, minn. / iowa state) both in the paint and on the glass, concordia soon stretched out a 16 point lead. Bjerke had eight points and six boards in the second half. The team utilized full court pressure to force multiple loper turnovers and gain extra possessions. The lopers worked hard on the boards, but with a short bench, there were few chances for a comeback against concordia.
"we had better ball movement, better rebounding and took care of the ball better. It helped us take the lead in the second half," said fessler of the team's improved final 20 minutes.
hickman was the leading scorer in the game, finishing with 18 points from 7-of-10 shooting. Williams followed closely with 16 points. The battle on the glass was led by bjerke and kali olstad (sr., elgin, minn.) with nine rebounds each. Viehauser had an eight point, eight board game in her first game as a golden bear. Concordia shot 43.8% from the field with 80 total shot attempts. The team turned the ball over just 11 times in the game.
the lopers shot 35.6% from the field and out-rebounded concordia 47-45. They were led by debi johnson with 16 points, including four three-point shots. Combined, the team had three players reach double figures for scoring. Kim rickels had a game high 10 rebounds. Poor ball control spelled the difference for nebraska-kearney, with 26 turnovers turned into 33 concordia points.
the golden bears return to play at the gangelhoff center tomorrow afternoon, hosting wisconsin-parkside at 3:00 pm.
