saint paul, minn. - thirteen is definitely an unlucky number for the golden bears (16-9, 15-6 nsic) as a cold shooting night ended cu's winning streak at 13 on saturday afternoon. Concordia fell the team they are battling with for second place in the nsic, northern state (18-7, 15-6 nsic) 70-67. Despite the off night for cu they did hold a lead at halftime thanks to a hickman runner at the buzzer. Hickman led concordia with 21 points on the night. box score

concordia also got double digit scoring from jineen williams who added 11 points and five rebounds. Rachel hansen added seven points along with five assists and two steals. Tori lythjohan tied her career high with six points on a couple three pointers, she set her career high the previous night doing the same thing. Lythjohan played extended minutes on saturday afternoon and was a key contributor off the bench. The golden bears committed just eight turnovers and outscored the wolves 30-16 in the paint but it was not enough to pick up the win.

the first half was closely contested throughout the first twenty minutes as neither team got much separation. After the first four minutes cu held a 10-5 advantage with scoring coming from four different golden bears. Northern state stayed close and took their first lead of the game when jodi reinschmidt hit a layup at the 9:45 left. Rachel hansen gave cu the lead back with a layup at the seven minute mark. Concordia and northern state went back and forth throughout the remaining seven minutes. The golden bears took the lead into halftime 29-27 following a hickman runner she banked in as time expired.

there was six ties in the first half alone between the two teams. Cu outscored nsu 16-8 in the paint in the first half as well as adding 10 second chance points. Hickman had seven of her 21 points in the first twenty minutes.

northern state tied the game directly out of the half on a krista rabenberg layup. Shandrell duncan gave the lead right back to cu but then the wolves took over going on a 14-3 run to take a 10 point lead with 12:08 left. Northern state keep their lead between three and four possessions for a majority of the next nine minutes. Back to back three pointers by zoraa quoie and carissa wolyniec cut the deficit to five with 2:30 left. Nsu held concordia scoreless for the next 1:30 to extend their lead to nine. Hickman hit a three pointer followed by a layup cut the lead to four with 33 seconds left. Concordia couldn't make turned the ball over after a pair of free throws and trailed by eight with 24 seconds left. Hickman went on a 6-1 run to cut the lead to three with 13 seconds left. Emily becken hit a pair of 3's to go up five. Hansen hit another three to get within two and becken missed her first of two free throws to give cu a chance. A heave to half court was intercepted by nsu to end the concordia rally.

hickman scored 11 points in the final :47 second of the game to ignite the comeback that just fell short. Concordia shot just 9-28 from three point range on the night and was 2-11 in the first half. Concordia got to the line just five times whereas northern state got there 27 times and converted on 22 attempts. The golden bears got 18 points from their bench on saturday night but it was not enough to overcome nsu's advantage from the line.

next weekend cu will host st. Cloud state at 6 p.m. In the final regular season home game of the year. Concordia has clinched a home playoff game in the nsic tournament on march 2. The game time will be announced later after the tournament field is set on both the men's and women's side. Concordia will be either two or three seed in the nsic tournament.