sioux falls, s.d. - the golden bears (3-8, 2-5 nsic) fell for the second straight day to a nationally ranked opponent as they lost 84-75 to #21 augustana (13-2, 6-2 nsic). Four cu players scored in double digits, led by freshman jodi batzel's 16, a career high. Freshman rachel hansen also had a career high 15 points on the night. Concordia couldn't overcome the vikings 11 3-point field goals and 21 made free throws. box score

combined, batzel and hansen were 13-18 from the field and 4-7 from behind the arc. Batzel also added nine rebounds just missing a double-double. Senior jineen williams (racine, wis.) added a double-double going for 13 points and 10 rebounds. It was just the third double-double by any golden bear this season and the first of williams' career. The fourth player to score double-digits in the game was zoraa quoie as she added 11 points and was 7-8 from the free throw line. Freshman carissa wolyniec (minneapolis, minn.) had a career-high eight points as well.

outside of quoie, hansen and williams, cu made just 2-9 free throws, which proved to make the difference as augustana made 21-27 in the win.

concordia and augustana played a very close first half as neither team led by more than five points at any time. The vikings opened up the game with a 5-0 run before cu came back with an 8-1 run of their own to take an 8-6 lead. The run was keyed by four points by quoie. Augustana had another five point lead at 17-12 with 12:19 left in the first half when cu responded by with four straight free throws to close within one with just over ten minutes left in the half, two by quoie and two by williams. The golden bears took the lead back on a layup by wolyniec with 8:56 left in the half. A layup by williams gave cu a 23-19 lead moments later but five straight points by the vikings gave them the lead back at 24-23. The two teams traded baskets for most of the remaining half. With the score 33-31 in favor of the vikings, with 1:40 left in the half, hansen hit back-to-back three-pointers to give cu a 37-33 lead at half time.

cu outscored augustana 20-10 in the paint in the first half and scored 14 points off turnovers. The golden bears only allowed the vikings two points off turnovers and 10 points in the paint.

the golden bears extended their lead to six thanks to a batzel layup at the 19:40 mark of the second half. Augustana got back to back baskets from molly hayes and a jumper from alex freeny to tie the game 39. Hayes finished with 18 points and nine assists.

cu promptly responded by going on a 7-0 run and took a 46-39 lead with 16:21 left. In a game that featured many runs augustana responded once again going on an 8-0 run of their own and took a 47-46 lead with 14:58 left. A jumper in the paint by batzel gave cu a 48-47 lead but it would be the last lead for the golden bears as the vikings scored 11 straight points over a span 2:04 and led 59-48 with 12:11 left. Overall it was a commanding 19-2 run from the 16:21 mark which proved to be the dagger for cu.

concordia did not go down without a fight though as they went on a 13-4 run to pull within one at 65-64 with 5:54 left. Sophomore anne skriba (la crosse, wis.) scored four points during the run to help bring cu back. Again though it was the vikings who responded with yet another run scoring 13 of the games next 17 points and took a commanding 78-67 lead with 1:08 left in the game. The golden bears got as close as six with :33 seconds left but it was not enough as cu fell 84-75.

after three straight road games cu returns home for the next four beginning this saturday as they host winona state at 2 p.m. At gangelhoff center. On sunday they will take on upper iowa at 2 p.m. As well.