St. Paul, Minn. - the #4 Winona State Warriors (21-2, 16-1 nsic) came to town and took it to concordia (9-12, 6-11 nsic) 95-45 on saturday night in the Gangelhoff Center. Peter Olafeso (st. Paul, minn.) led the way with 20 points in the game for the golden bears. Terez Van Pelt (Osseo, minn.) had eight points off the bench to finish second on the team in scoring.
box score
The warriors took and early 15-5 lead and never looked back from that point. Concordia had no answer down low all night and wsu took advantage of that. In the first half the warriors outscored cu 22-4 in the paint, wsu big man Clayton Vette had 16 points alone in the first half. Winona state was just as impressive on the defensive side of the ball contesting nearly every concordia shot and keeping cu off the foul line.
The golden bears got within five but then Winona State took control. Wsu went on a 19-5 run to extend their lead to 19 at 34-15 with 3:25 left in the half. Concordia would shot just 21.4% percent in the first half and was 2-11 from behind the arc scoring just 18 points as the warriors took a 41-18 lead into the locker room.
As the second half started concordia cut the lead to 17 after a quick six point spurt that included an Isaiah Thomas (Fridley, minn.) three pointer and a P. Olafeso three point play. That would be as close as the game would get as winona state continued to pound the ball down low.
Concordia had no answer as the warriors quickly pushed their lead to 30 with 10:53 left thanks to a 15-4 run. Less than five minutes later the lead would be 40 as wsu would start hitting their three's. Winona state finished the second half 6-11 from behind the arc. Once again they also found scoring down low outscoring cu 26-8 in the paint in the second half.
Hot shooting was the story in second half for wsu as they shot 58.8% from the field as their led continued to grow. Over the final 7:51 of the game wsu finished cu off with a 21-3 run and pulling away for the 95-45 win. Concordia was out rebounded 57-29 on the night, vette would grab 13 of them to complete his double-double. The warriors defense shined all night and was big part of the reason they out shot cu 52.2% to 24.2%, the golden bears were contested on every shot throughout the night.
Winona state has now won 10 straight games, the streak is book ended with wins against the golden bears. Concordia is back at home next week as they host Southwest Minnesota State and Minnesota State.
