st. Paul, minn. - a big hold in the first half and a huge rebounding second half gave the golden bears a huge 68-55 win over minnesota duluth (12-10, 9-6 nsic) on saturday evening. Concordia university improves to 15-10 overall with the weekend sweep and moves into a tie for ninth place in the nsic standings at 7-8.
the golden bears worked their way to a 26-21 halftime lead after holding the bulldogs without a point for the final five minutes of the opening half. They forced minnesota duluth into five turnovers in the last two minutes of the period, gaining four steals. The golden bears went on a period-ending 9-0 run, getting a three-pointer from candace olstad and four points from jamie jones.
the golden bears out-matched minnesota duluth 26-17 on the boards in the second half, pulling down ten offensive boards and scoring eight second chance points. Concordia's forwards saw immediate action, scoring each of the first three field goals in the second half and helping extend the team's lead to 12 points, 35-23, just over three minutes into the period.
umd's standout player, jheri booker, helped her team get back into the contest and, with the help of the team's only two three-point shots of the night, brought the score to 39-38 with 11 minutes to play. The golden bears used a 13-2 run to push the lead back to 12 points with just under seven minutes to play. Rebounding was the name of the game, with concordia grabbing 10 of the 14 missed shots through this run, including six boards from olstad. Jamie jones and zoraa quoie mixed in three-point shots with the team's points in the paint.
as the bulldogs sunk shots from the charity stripe in the final minutes, scoring seven of their final 13 from the line, the golden bears looked to seal the win with three-pointers from kali olstad. Olstad connected on a set of long range shots and also hit three free throws to score nine of the team's final 14 points of the game. The golden bears took the big 68-55 win in front of a crowd of 786.
quoie landed a team high 17 points in the game and also had five assists and steals each. Candace olstad marked a double-double with 14 points, ten boards and three assists. Jones also finished in double figures for scoring with 13 points. shandrell duncan helped the cu effort on the glass, ripping down nine boards. The team shot 32.3% from the field and hit 21-of-26 (80.8%) free throws. As opposed to the teams' first meeting of the season, the golden bears out-rebounded minnesota duluth 43-40.
booker was the leading scorer for the bulldogs, dropping in 17 points while also grabbing six boards. Kelsey hewitt came up just shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine boards. She also had four blocked shots. The bulldogs shot 36.7% from the field.
saturday evening's game was also cu's second annual pink zone night, benefitting breast cancer awareness and the twin cities hope lodge. The gym was decked out in pink, as were the fans who filled the gangelhoff to help guide the golden bears to the ever-important win down the stretch.
