st. Cloud, minn. - three-pointer, three-pointer, three-pointer. That was the play-by-play recap of concordia's 100-48 win over st. Cloud state (10-16, 5-14 nsic) on wednesday night. Senior kali olstad blew out the single game records for both concordia and the nsic when she canned ten, yes ten, three-pointers for the golden bears. Her play inspired pure awe from the halenbeck hall crowd, hitting 10-of-12 field goals, all long range attempts, on her way to a career high 30 points. Concordia (22-4, 16-3 nsic) heads into their final nsic game on saturday afternoon against upper iowa with the chance to clinch the program's fourth nsic regular season title. box score
to say that the golden bears, and olstad (g, sr., elgin, minn.) in particular, were untouchable would be an understatement. The team shot 69% from the field in the first half and finished with a season high 65% field goal average, downing 16-of-21 shots from beyond the arc along the way.
olstad missed one long range shot attempt in each half but connected on a whopping ten threes in the game to set the new records for both the concordia program and the nsic. Until tonight, no other cu player had hit more than seven triples in a game, although olstad herself connected on six twice already this season. In northern sun conference play, the former record sat at nine made three-pointers. On the year, olstad has 70 made three-pointers, which sets her career mark at 230 made triples, just three away from the school record.
olstad started the game out with a triple for the team's first field goal. She capped a 13-0 concordia run with another hit from long range. Things never looked up for the huskies of st. Cloud state, who were looking to continue a short winning streak as their season wrapped up. But as shot after shot fell through the net on concordia's end, the scoring margin only grew wider.
the huskies not only had to look out for olstad on the arc, but a fiesty maurika hickman (minneapolis, minn.) caused troubles from the field as well, connecting on 6-of-7 shots in the first half for a team high 16 points, including 2-for-2 three-pointers. The junior guard hit another perfect set of threes in the second half and finished as runner-up to olstad in scoring with 22 points.
the golden bears led by as many as 61 points late in the second half and finished with 52 point advantage, by far a season high. This is the second time this season that they hit the century mark in scoring, taking points from nine different players. Rebounding also favored concordia 36-21.
the whooping gives the golden bears the confidence they need to head into their regular season finale in search of the nsic season title, which they will claim with a win over the league's bottom dweller, upper iowa. The nsic sanford health women's basketball tournament kicks off a week from tonight with the golden bears assured a home game in the quarterfinals with a chance to play the remainder of the tournament on their own floor, where they have gone 10-1 this season.
other notes from the game include an 11-point, 5-rebound performance from gillian bjerke (c, sr., detroit lakes, minn.) and five assists each from zoraa quoie (g, jr., woodbury, minn.) and chanica hall (g, sr., minneapolis, minn.). Olstad was also the squad's leading rebounder on the night with six grabs off of the glass.
the huskies shot 30.4% from the field and were led in scoring by two bench players with seven points each. The huskies turned the ball over 22 times, leading to 30 cu points.
