sioux falls, s.d. - the golden bear women's basketball team built a strong first half lead that they clung to as the university of mary (1-3) turned up the heat in an 81-77 non-conference decision at the nsic holiday hoopsfest on sunday evening. The team used ten free throws in the final four minutes of play to stay ahead of the marauders for the win and a 4-0 start on the season. box score
concordia built a 44-28 lead by halftime, out-shooting the university of mary 48.6% to 28%. The golden bears hit 17 first half field goals, while the marauders connected on only seven. Junior guard maurika hickman (minneapolis, minn. / uw-milwaukee) jumped in where she left off yesterday, dumping in 13 points to lead the team in the half.
the golden bears forced the marauders into 16 turnovers in the half which, combined with their poor shooting, helped the golden bears go up by as many as 17 points in the half. Senior guard jamie jones (mounds view, minn.) hit a three-pointer at the 3:51 mark of the period to give cu the 37-20 lead.
the marauders turned things around in the second half, however, and forced the golden bears to pick up their game. A 12-4 run around the midpoint of the period brought up the tension in the gym, with the marauders within just six points of the golden bears, 57-51. The scoring came from a variety of u-mary players, but forward rachel zillmer scored six of her game's 25 points to lead the marauders in the run.
the scare of the marauder run was snapped by an old-fashioned three-point play from jones to get cu back up by double figures. Center gillian bjerke (sr., detroit lakes, minn. / iowa state) was the most active post player for the golden bears, dumping in a number of field goals and free throws as well as getting to work on the boards. jineen williams (g, jr., minneapolis, minn. / uw-milwaukee) showed up as concordia's leading scorer in the second half with 11 points, five of which came from the charity stripe.
the free throw line proved to be the saving grace for the golden bears. They sunk 10-of-14 free shots in the final minutes of the game and relied on their defense to hold off the marauders advancing further. They only needed two field goals added to the mix to secure the win. The game was at an average seven point spread for the last five minutes. The closest that u-mary was able to get was at the buzzer when a three-pointer set the final score at 81-77.
hickman was the leading scorer for cu with 22 points, one of four players reaching double figures in the game. Williams added 19, while bjerke and jones followed with 16 and 14 points each, respectively. Bjerke was teh game's top rebounder, nabbing eight of the squad's 31 boards. chanica hall (g, sr., minneapolis, minn. / detroit mercy) had six assists. The golden bears shot 46.6% in the game and hit seven three-point shots.
the marauders out-scored cu 49-37 in the second half, shooting a hot 55.9% from the field to narrow the game's margin. They finished with a 44.1% shooting average and led 34-31 on the glass. They made all of their rebounding work count, putting in 20 second chance points. Zillmer had 25 points for her team while three other players also reached double figures.
the golden bears take their 4-0 record into the start of the nsic season next weekend. Their shuffled schedule pits them up against upper iowa at 6:00 pm on friday with the game being played at the karges center at uw-river falls. The team plays at the gangelhoff center on saturday at 1:00 pm, hosting winona state.
