winona, minn. - the chill and snow outside seemed to transfer to the concordia women's basketball team in mccown gymnasium sunday afternoon. Looking for a three-peat as nsic tournament champions, the golden bears put up a cool 27.9 shooting mark and fell to st. Cloud state 53-41. The win was not pretty, but it assured the huskies (22-8) a spot in the ncaa tournament and ended concordia's season with a 21-12 record. candace olstad and jamie jones were named to the all-tournament team. box score
the loss for the golden bears ended an improbable late season run that saw six straight wins. Concordia was virtually counted out of the nsic tournament as of three weeks ago, but they battled back with good basketball to get within a stone's throw of their seventh straight ncaa tournament appearance. Along the way, the golden bears topped msu moorhead, st. Cloud state, #1 minnesota state and augustana college.
despite hitting hitting only seven field goals in the first half, including just one in the first ten minutes of play, the golden bears only trailed by a single point at halftime, 18-17. Neither team could buy a bucket with shooting percentages in the low 20's per team. Rachel booth was the only player to stand out in the half, putting up ten points with four boards.
the game remainined within several possessions through the second half. Just as the huskies seemed to be heating up to give them a chance to win, the golden bears began to hit a few field goals. A krystal scott jumper put st. Cloud state up 34-27 at the nine minute mark, but zoraa quoie and jamie jones came down on the concordia end to help bring the margin back down.
a staggering blow was dealt to the concordia cause near the 6:30 mark as quoie departed the game following an offensive foul, her fifth foul of the game. abby nielsen, who came in and helped the cu rebounding effort, lifted the team's spirits with a three-pointer to set the score at 39-35, six minutes remaining.
danielle ellison laid in a bucket to give the huskies an eight point lead with two minutes to play and, with a concordia airball on the other end, st. Cloud state seemed to seal a tournament title in their first season as members of the nsic.
the huskies stretched out a lead in the final minutes by hitting the free throw line. They walked away with the 53-41 win.
candace olstad was the leading scorer in her final game as a golden bear with nine points. She pulled down a team high ten rebounds. Duncan added seven points and eight rebounds. Concordia shot 27.9% from the field. both candace olstad and jamie jones were named to the 2009 nsic all-tournament team.
the huskies were led by tournament mvp rachel booth with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Katie tacheny added 12 points and eight rebounds. St. Cloud state shot 25.9% from the field, but out-rebounded concordia 53-41. This is the team's first nsic championship and their sixth conference championship in school history.
2009 nsic all-tournament team
rachel booth - mvp - st. Cloud state
katie tacheny - st. Cloud state
talisha barlow - st. Cloud state
candace olstad - concordia university
jamie jones - concordia university
