saint paul, minn. - the golden bears (17-9, 16-6 nsic) won their 14th game in 15 chances on saturday with thirty point win against st. Cloud state (12-14, 9-13 nsic) 86-56. The golden bears were led by their four seniors, on senior night, as all four had double digit point totals. Jineen williams headlined the group with a double-double, her fourth of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Cu forced 20 turnovers while only turning ball over seven times to take control of the game.
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it was all about the concordia seniors on saturday night as the golden bears said thank you to four seniors; zoraa quoie, maurika hickman, jineen williams and shandrell duncan. In the first half cu scored 32 points all by the four seniors. Quoie became the 10th player in cu history since 1999 to score at 900 points in a career, she did so in three years of work. Quoie had 15 points and six steals on the night. Duncan had 11 points and seven rebounds and hickman had 11 points and five assists.

the golden bears and huskies played a tight and somewhat unforgettable first 14 minutes as the score was just 18-16 in favor of cu with 6:10 left in the half. St. Cloud state stayed close trailing by two 23-21 with 3:28 left, before cu closed the half on a 9-0 run thanks to five points by zoraa.

in the first half cu used a 14-6 advantage in the paint to take an 11 point lead in to the locker room. Concordia turned the ball over only twice in the first half as they weathered 37.1% shooting in the first half. Cu only made 2-10 from behind the arc in the first half.

as the second half began the huskies cut the lead to ten but that was as close as they would get the rest of the game. Concordia used a 19-8 run from 16:38-10:40 in the second half taking a 57-34 lead. Williams had six points during the cu run. The golden bears led by as much as 35 points in the second half, a lead the came with 1:04 left in the game.

concordia outscored scsu 28-18 in the paint in the second half as well outscoring the huskies 12-2 on fast break points. Cu found their shooting touch in the second half connecting on 55.9% of their shots and hitting 12-15 from the line. By the end of the game cu held a 42-24 edge in points in the paint.

with the win combined with the win by northern state clinched the third seed in the nsic tournament and will host a first round game on wednesday night at the gangelhoff. The game time and opponent will be announced later after the nsic releases the brackets.

photos by trevor saylor | trevor saylor flickr