crookston, minn. - the golden bears shot a season high 50.8% from the field and improved to 7-0 on the season and 3-0 in northern sun conference play with an 89-56 win over minnesota, crookston (3-5, 1-2 nsic) on friday night. Concordia had a balanced scoring effort and never trailed in the game. They take on an undefeated msu moorhead team in moorhead tomorrow evening. box score
the golden bears scored on their first field goal attempt, a jumper from jineen williams (g, jr., racine, wis.) 30 seconds into the meeting, and never allowed the golden eagles a lead in the game. The score slowly ran up in the first half, a three-pointer from kali olstad (f/g, sr., elgin, minn.) putting cu up 20-11 around the 11 minute mark. The first double digit lead came just minutes later, with just seven minutes to play in the half, off of a maurika hickman (g, jr., minnapolis, minn.) bucket.
the golden eagles stayed in the game by taking solid care of the ball, turning it over just five times in the half, and by hitting their share of field goals. As they would throughout the rest of the game, the golden bears shared their scoring opportunities and also hit the boards equally well, while umc saw most of its scoring from just three players. The golden bears took a 38-28 lead into the half.
the second period of action saw tremendous shooting from concordia in their navy uniforms and saw the score separate quickly. A 10-0 opening run, with half of the notches coming from center gillian bjerke (sr., detroit lakes, minn.), put the golden bears easily up by 20 with no time wasted. They had 17 more minutes of play to stretch out as large as a 37 point lead (2:31) and force minnesota, crookston into 16 second half turnovers, leading to 19 cu points.
the golden bears saw a multitude of high-percentage shots in the paint, helping to their 54.5% second half shooting average. The team's guards played hard off of the dribble to contribute to the team's 30 points in the paint.
olstad put up a season high 18 points from 6-of-11 shooting, with every one of her shots being outside of the arc. She was also a leading rebounder, matching jamie jones (g, sr., mounds view, minn.) with a team high six boards. Jones had 12 points and three steals to contribute as well. A big second half from bjerke gave her 13 final points, while hickman and williams followed with 11 and 10 points each to give cu five double-digit scorers. Williams had a team high six assists.
minnesota, crookston saw a great game from team leader bri zabel, finishing with 15 points and five boards. Brittani wiese had 13 pointf and three steals. The golden eagles shot 36.8% to cu's 50.8% and were out-rebounded 34-41.
