saint paul, min. - concordia (3-2) improved to 3-0 at home on friday night as they kicked off their 2011 radisson roseville classic with a 83-72 victory over mount mercy (5-3). carissa wolyniec (minneapolis, minn) had a team high 19 points hitting five three pointers on the night. Thirteen of wolyniec's 22 made shots on the year come from behind the arc. rachel hansen (eagan, minn.) had 11 points going 7-8 from the foul line helping ice the win. box score | watch live

the golden bears and mustangs started slow on the evening as mmu had a 4-2 lead after the first 3:40 of play. Concordia went on a 6-2 run thanks to back to back three's from wolyniec to take a 10-6 lead at the 15:22 mark. The two teams stayed close as mustangs emily greiner, continued to keep the mustangs in the game. She had 16 points in the first half hitting three, three pointers and going 5-6 from the line. Every time the golden bears tried to pull away she would hit a basket to keep mmu in cu' rear view mirror. She scored five straight to give the mustangs a one point lead at the 10:40 mark.

greiner's three at the 5:34 mark give mount mercy their largest lead of the game at 34-26 with 5:34 left in the first half. Concordia closed the gap two minutes later going on a 8-0 run with a three from jolene blood (mounds view, minn.) and wolyniec followed up by a lay up from erica gress (apple valley, minn.). hansen gave cu the lead back a minute late with a jumper in the paint. The golden bears closed the half on a 16-4 run taking a four point lead in the break.

over the first five minutes plus of the second half the golden bears built up an 11 point lead with 14:36 left in the game. The lead got as big as 15 in the second half as wolyniec hit a three with 7:09 remaining, cu lead 68-53 at the time. Greiner hit a three for the mustangs that started a comeback for mount mercy. Over a span of 4:23 the mustangs went on 17-4 run cutting the golden bears led to just two with 2:27 left. Mmu's micha mims had seven of her 20 points during the run.

mandy poke (richfield, minn.) hit a huge three on cu's next possession to extend the lead to seven with just over two minutes left. The mustangs cut the lead to three on their next possession and caused a miss jumper on cu's next time down the court, but gress had a offensive put back that put cu up five. The golden bears got a stop on mmu's next time down the court and wolyniec hit a pair of free throws extending the lead to seven with 1:00 minute left. Hansen was then 4-4 from the line down the stretch as cu iced the victory.

anika whiting (ashland, wis.) had a team high 10 rebounds, six of them on the offensive side of the ball. anne skriba (la crosse, wis.) had eight points and four boards off the bench. Blood, whiting and jodi batzel (rochester, minn.) all had six points on the afternoon.

the golden bears will take on #9 michigan tech tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. As the radisson roseville classic will come to a close.

photos copyright 2011 lou michaels