saint paul, minn. - the golden bears (5-8, 4-5 nsic) improved to 5-1 in the gangelhoff center this season with a 23 point win over upper iowa (1-12, 1-8 nsic) 77-54. Cu shot over 50% for the second straight game finished 51.9% from the field and hitting 8-16 from behind the arc. Senior guards maurika hickman (minneapolis, minn.) and jineen williams (racine, wis.) who went for 21 and 17 on the night respectively. Concordia tied a season high forcing 24 turnovers in the win which led to 34 points. box score
hickman had a near flawless night as she made eight of nine shots and converted all four free throw attempts. She also added three assists and two steals in the win. Williams was 6-10 from the field along with 2-3 from three point range and 3-3 from the free throw stripe. Freshman carissa wolyniec (minneapolis, minn.) set a career high with nine points off the bench to lead all reserves, all of wolyniec's scoring came off three pointers. mandy poke (so.,richfield, minn.) set her career high in assists with five, that mark led all players on sunday afternoon. jodi batzel (fr., rochester, minn.) had another good night as she scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win.
the golden bears and peacocks played a tight game in the first 11 minutes as neither team was able to pull ahead by much. At the 9:14 mark cu held tight to a 17-14 lead, following a basket by lyndsay westgaard of uiu. Cu promptly went on a 9-2 run over the next three 3:38 to pull ahead by ten. The peacocks closed the gap to six at 27-21 but the golden bears finished the half on 10-0 run to take a commanding 37-21 lead into halftime. Hickman had five points during the 10-0 run.
during the first half cu outscored upper iowa 18-6 off turnovers as they forced 16 turnovers in the first half alone. Hickman had 11 of her 21 in the first half on 4-5 shooting including one three. Batzel was a perfect 3-3 in the first half on the way to eight points.
concordia kept the pressure on as soon as the second half started as hickman hit a jumper to bring the lead to 18 at 39-21. Uiu hit a free throw to cut the lead to 17 but it was as close as they would get in the second half as cu led by as much as 30 at various points in the second half. A 21-8 run after the uiu basket gave cu a 60-30 lead with 10:55 left in the game. The lead hovered around 26-30 points for a majority of the remaining half as cu held uiu to 37.0% shooting from the field including 12.5% from three point range.
wolyniec was 2-2 from behind the arc in the second half as she set her career high in points. Hickman led all scorers with 10 and williams was right behind her with 9. Cu forced eight more turnovers in the second half which lead to 16 more points off turnovers. Cu finished the game with 34-15 advantage in that category.
the golden bears will be back home again next weekend as they host minnesota duluth and bemidji state on friday and saturday. Cu will tip off at 6 p.m. On january 14 against umd followed up the next day with a 4 p.m. Tip off against bemidji state.
photos courtesy of trevor sailor
