marshall, minn. - it was the closest game for the golden bears in well over a month but concordia university (14-8, 13-5 nsic) found a way to win their 11th straight game on friday, beating southwest minnesota state (7-15, 6-12 nsic) 58-56. In a low scoring affair jineen williams' 13 points led cu on the night as she came up one rebound shy of a double-double. maurika hickman added 11 on the night as she was the other cu player in double digits. Concordia shot just 39.3%, their second lowest total in a win this year, but it was enough to get past the mustangs who outshot cu on the night. box score

concordia struggled offensively all night long but did get some great defensive performances. zoraa quoie who is in the top ten in the nation in steals had five on the night along with seven rebounds. Quoie made her voice known offensively as well scoring nine points. rachel hansen added seven rebounds as well along with seven points. jodi batzel scored eight and grabbed five boards. Concordia forced 19 turnovers on the night on 12 steals.

the golden bears and mustangs played tight first half as neither team got much breathing room. Cu had the largest lead of the half at six points coming at the 12:31 mark of the first half at 12-6. Smsu never led in the first half after cu jumped ahead 6-4 but did tie the game at 26 late in the first half. Concordia got a lay up from erica gress and a three pointer from hansen late in the half and took a three point lead into the break.

southwest minnesota state used a 6-0 run from the end of the first half through the first minute and half of the second half to take a 32-31 lead. The two teams traded baskets back and forth throughout the next few minutes as smsu held a 40-38 lead with 14:00 minutes left. The mustangs went on a 9-0 run over the next 4+ minutes as they seemed in control with a 49-38 lead with 9:43 left. Concordia responded with a 15-0 run over a span of 5:33 to take a 53-49 lead with 4:10 left. Quoie had six of the golden bears points during the run and hickman added five. In the last 4:10 of action neither team was able to score very much as just 10 total points were scored.

the mustangs had a chance to tie after forcing a cu turnover with :54 seconds left. Smsu held the ball for the next 30 seconds but were unable to get an good shots and cu forced a turnover with 23 seconds left. Hickman went to the line with 19 seconds left but she missed the first of a one and one and again smsu had a chance to tie the game. Abby kenealy, the game's leading scorer saw her shot rattle out with six seconds left and the mustangs never got another shot off as cu won 58-56.

concordia will back in action tomorrow afternoon as they take on minnesota state (11-11, 8-10 nsic) in their final regular season road game of the season. The golden bears and mavericks will tip off at 4 p.m.

photos by trevor saylor