st. Paul, minn. - the concordia women's basketball team improved to 7-0 in the nsic (13-1 overall) with an 84-68 trouncing of minnesota duluth (10-5, 5-3 nsic) on saturday night. The bulldogs evened the golden bears in pushing the pace of the game, but concordia hit more shots and dominated the boards to separate the score. Senior center gillian bjerke finished with her second straight double-double with 15 points and 10 boards. box score
there may have been a few strained necks in the crowd at the gangelhoff center as both the golden bears and bulldogs ran the court intensely in a fast-paced duel between nsic foes. Minnesota duluth kept up with concordia in field goals in the opening 10 minutes of the game, but the final 30 minutes were controlled by the golden bears.
cu did a good job moving the ball in and out of umd's zone defense, gaining a number of looks down low in transition while also getting free looks from the distance. kali olstad (sr., g, elgin, minn.) zipped a pass to ashley viehauser (sr., f, minneapolis, minn.) down low for a bucket just before jineen williams (jr., g, racine, wis.) sunk a three-pointer to give cu its first double digit lead of the game, 27-15 at the 7:20 mark. The golden bears finally figured out how to shut down the bulldog offense, holding umd to a single field goal in the final 3:57 of first half play. The golden bears had a 40-25 halftime lead, although the intensity of play suggested a closer margin.
routinely a balanced team in its efforts, the golden bears had two stars emerge in the second half. Center gillian bjerke (sr., c, detroit lakes, minn.) put up a 20 minute double-double with 11 points, nine of which came from the charity stripe, and 10 boards. maurika hickman (jr., g, minneapolis, minn.) brutalized the bulldogs from long range, sinking 4-of-5 shots on her way to 12 points. Bjerke took her turn at the line between teammates' field goals, while an outburst from three-point land quickly drove up cu's lead.
concordia went up 68-44 by the nine minute mark with four of five field goals coming from beyond the arc. At that point, the game was out of minnesota duluth's reach despite booker's efforts to pull her team back in the mix. The two teams shot equally down the stretch, making concordia's win imminent.
bjerke was the leading scorer in cu's six-player double figure scoring night, the team's fourth straight game with four or more players scoring 10 or more points. The 15-point, 10-board double-double was bjerke's second straight and third of the season. Hickman rounded out her 12 point game with a career high eight assists. Viehauser and williams each put up 11 points, followed by zoraa quoie (jr., g, woodbury, minn.) and jamie jones (sr., g, mounds view, minn.) with 10 each. Olstad had a nine point, seven rebound night, matching williams' seven rebounds for second behind bjerke.
concordia out-shot minnesota duluth 38.9%-36.2% from the field, but the 28-72 shooting was concordia's lowest percentage of the season, far lower than their 47.3% season average. The bulldog defense has been solid all season, leading the nsic in both steals and blocked shots, which contributed to cu's low average. The golden bears used a strong 54-39 rebounding performance to balance things out in the decision.
minnesota duluth took 21 points from booker but limited most of umd's other shooters. Both teams committed 15 turnovers while cu came out slightly ahead in steals, 8-7.
the golden bears hit the road for the next few weekends, heading out west to take on minnesota state and southwest minnesota state next weekend. They return to the gangelhoff center on january 29-30 in continued nsic play.
