durango, colo. - feelin' hot, hot, hot! the #21-ranked golden bears (26-5) shot their way to an 83-56 win over csu-pueblo (21-11) shot their way to an 83-56 win over csu-pueblo in the central region semifinals on saturday evening. Concordia shot 46.4% from the field and hit 13 three-pointers to make to the program's second-ever appearance in a regional championship game. They play for the central region title and a berth in the ncaa elite eight on monday evening at 8:00 pm (ct). They will play tournament host and #6-ranked fort lewis college. You can follow all of monday’s action online, stay tuned to www.cugoldenbears.com for all of the links! box score
"we're all extremely excited for the championship game," said senior jamie jones. "we are very focused. It will come down to doing what we need to do. We need to keep executing. We are a tight family, we don't want it to end!"
things were working well for the golden bears both in the paint and from beyond the arc from start to finish. gillian bjerke (c, sr., detroit lakes, minn.) got the game going with a 6-0 run, the concordia guards feeding into the paint for all three buckets. The game then went to the distance with three-point shots falling from all around the arc. A jamie jones (trey set the score at 20-9 at the 10:38 mark. The triple found the basket four more times in a concordia 18-3 run that put the golden bears up 35-12 with less than five minutes to play.
the golden bears sealed off an extremely impressive first half with back-to-back triples in the final minute, zoraa quoie (g, jr., woodbury, minn.) hitting a high-arcing long ball over two defenders to beat the shot clock and maurika hickman (g, jr., minneapolis, minn.) erupting the bench with a buzzer-beater.
concordia was 9-of-13 from three-point range in the first half on their way to a huge 45-19 lead. The shooting warfare came from virtually every player who saw court time. Jones had a team high 11 points with 3-of-3 from long range and 4-of-5 shots made from the field. The golden bears shot 52.9% from the field, while the thunderwolves had just a 20% shooting average.
golden bear posts largely dominated the second half of play, bjerke dumping in 14 points and ashley viehauser (f, sr., minneapolis, minn.) heading toward one of the best games of her career with 14 points. Concordia had a 36-24 edge in the paint throughout the game and also out-rebounded csup 41-37.
even accidentals went concordia’s way as the cu lead continued to build, a banked three-pointer from jones here, a loose ball falling into viehauser’s hand there. Even the golden bear reserves, who saw plenty of court time in the waning minutes of the win, sunk their shots to maintain the lead. Concordia led by at least 30 points for the final 12 minutes of the game and finished with an 83-56 victory.
while the golden bears were sinking more than half of their field goals, the thunderwolves of csu-pueblo got lost in turnovers and off-aim shots. Their only answer to concordia’s offense came with a spackling of three-pointers made and golden bears fouls early on. Forward katrina selsor put in 14 points for the thunderwolves before succumbing to fouls. Csup played with much more control in the second half, turning the ball over just six times.
concordia connected on 13 three-pointers in the win with jones out-shining all players with seven made triples. Her 25 points led the golden bears to the win and also matched a career high. Posts bjerke and viehauser each put in 14 points, viehauser leading the rebounding front with nine boards. Hickman fed eight assists to her teammates, leading all players. The teaqm finished with a 46.4% field goal average.
the thunderwolves shot 32.8% from the field, an improvement from their first half performance but not nearly enough for the win.
