st. Paul, minn. - the golden bear women's basketball team lapped the wisconsin-parkside rangers (2-1) in a 75-57 win at the wildwood lodge tip-off classic on saturday afternoon. The team came up with 19 steals, the most swipes since a jan. 27th game back in 2005. Behind a 21-point, nine rebound performance from tournament mvp jineen williams, concordia swept their home-opening weekend to go up 2-0 on the year. box score
"we were trying to build a team on pure speed," said head coach paul fessler of the new team makeup. "playing against these two quality teams this weekend was a test for us."
the team needed something big to separate themselves from a rangers squad that sparked the end of the first period with a 16-3 run, and someting big is exactly what they got. A full court press was applied early in the second period with concordia leading just 43-41. kali olstad (jr., elgin, minn.) took one of the half's first steals and jineen williams (jr., racine, wis.) laid in a quick bucket with the chance for an and-one. Williams's aim was off on the free throw, but olstad seemed to be the only player aware that just one shot was to be taken and she took the offensive board back for a bucket with no confrontation from uwp.
from there, the golden bears only continued to roll on. Their pressure on uw-parkside was sweltering and went foul-free. A whopping six steals came from concordia in an 18-0 run through four minutes of play that gave the team a 61-41 lead at the 13:13 mark.
"we have the depth and speed to pressure full court," said fessler of the most noticeable area of success in the game. "they (cu players) understand the game and the angles to get all of those steals."
the game's 19 steals came from a wide variety of players, with eight golden bears marking at least one and four players marking a team high of three.
offensive rebounding was also crucial in concordia building and maintaining their lead. Cu had 19 offensive boards and spread the ball around well, attacking from in the paint and on the wing. Williams had a big second half, scoring 12 points and pulling down five rebounds, all offensive. Olstad, who finished with 15 points in the game, scored nine in the team's commanding second half.
the golden bears shot 43.3% from the field. The rangers had a respectable 41.7% shooting average, but in the end, their 26 turnovers were easily what did them in. Erasing the memories of the final 20 minutes, they can hang their hat on a first half comeback that brought them back from an 18-point deficit to a halftime score of 41-37 in favor of cu.
leading the way for the cu win was williams with her 21 points and nine boards. Olstad finished with 15 points and eight boards. jamie jones (sr., mounds view, minn.) finished with 16 points. Both olstad and jones joined williams on the all-tournament team.
concordia resumes play thanksgiving weekend at the nsic holiday hoopsfest classic in sioux falls, s.d. (nov. 28-29). There, they will take on augustana college and the university of mary in non-conference games.
all-tournament team
mvp - jineen williams, concordia university
jamie jones, concordia university
kali olstad, concordia university
brittany hogen, uw-parkside
michelle mcdonald, winona state
