mankato, minn. - concordia (6-3, 3-0 nsic) stayed perfect in nsic play with a 83-67 win over minnesota state (4-3, 0-3 nsic) on friday night. The golden bears were led by anika whiting (ashland, wis.) who poured in 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. It was her first double-double of her career and the second time she led cu in scoring this season. box score
jodi batzel (rochester, minn.) added 15 points and six rebounds. rachel hansen (eagan, minn.) and carissa wolyniec (minneapolis, minn.) both had 12 points on the evening.
early in the first half it was whiting who took control scoring six of first 13 points for the golden bears as cu led 13-6. After a jolene blood three pointer concordia led 18-14 with 10:44 on the clock. The mavericks cut the lead to one just moments later but a three point play by batzel put cu back up by four as the clock went below the ten minute mark. Less than a minute later batzel converted another three point play as cu had a five point lead, their largest of the first half since taking the 13-6 lead out of the gate.
concordia was in the midst of a dry spell when hansen hit two free throws with 6:10 left in the half giving cu a 26-24 lead. The golden bears went over 3:30 without a made field goal with batzel baskets bookending both the start and finish. Her jumper with 5:28 left in first ended the drought and cu scored four straight giving them a four point lead with 4:41 on the clock. The next few minutes were fairly quiet for both teams until tori lythjohan (cedarburg, wis.) went on a 5-0 herself giving cu a 37-31 lead with 1:27 left in the half. Msu hit a jumper as the half expired but cu still had the lead 38-35.
batzel led the way with nine points in the first half followed by eight from whiting and hansen. Hansen led the team with five rebounds in the opening half of play.
whiting hit a jumper to start the scoring in the second half increasing her game total to ten. After a maverick three pointer whiting hit two free throws to put cu back up by five with just over 17:00 left in the game. Batzel and hansen made back to back jumpers to put concordia up by nine, the largest lead of the game to that point, 47-38 with 15:33 left.
the mavericks cut the lead to three points on a couple different occasions, but each time the golden bears seemed to respond. Batzel hit a three pointer with 12:00 on the clock putting cu up 54-48. The lead was as big as nine after msu had cut the lead to three after a wolyniec three pointer. Concordia held msu without a point for over four minutes as the golden bears took a 68-53 lead with 4:41 left. The lead was 13 with 2:58 left as msu could only manage to hit free throws failing to make a field goal in over five and half minutes. Concordia pulled away late converting all 12 free throws in the last 3:34 of the game.
next up in this road trip will be a game with southwest minnesota state on saturday again at 6 p.m. The golden bears have won the last six against the mustangs.
