ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team had their five game winning streak snapped by the Northern State Wolves Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center, losing 63-50. Cold shooting doomed the Bears as they fell to 8-5 and 6-3 in the NSIC while NSU improved to 7-6 and 5-4 in conference.
CU Women's Basketball vs. Northern State 1.12.2013 - Images by
Justin Oakman
The Bears jumped out to an early 7-2 lead before Northern State responded with a 14-2 run to take a 16-9 advantage with 10:29 left in the half. Concordia went cold, missing 11 straight shots after hitting three of their first four. Freshman
Kionda Nicks (St. Paul, Minn.) broke the streak with a layup with 7:40 left in the half, cutting the NSU lead to five at 18-13. The Golden Bears spent the rest of the half clawing away at Northern's lead and eventually tied it up at 27 with 59 seconds left in the first. The two teams traded threes in the final minute sending it to half with a 30-30 score.
Nicks led the Bears with 10 points on an efficient 5-6 from the field while Northern State's Sadie Stotesbery led all scorers with 11 points including a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc.
The two teams were evenly matched in the first frame with CU grabbing 17 boards compared to NSU's 16 and both teams turned it over eight times before the break. Concordia shot 10-25 (40.0%) from the field while Northern State shot 11-29 (37.9%).
Northern State jumped back out to a seven point lead early in the half, going up 38-31 on a Stotesbery jumper at 13:40. Concordia struggled shooting the ball to open the second half, missing their first 11 shots.
Anika Whiting (Ashland, Wis. ) finally put in a layup while drawing a foul at the 13:09 mark, breaking the 6:51 minute field goal drought. The Wolves extended their lead to double digits at 48-38 with 8:54 remaining in the game following a 6-0 run. NSU held a comfortable double digit lead the rest of the half and cruised to a 63-50 final score.
Anika Whiting paced the Bears offense with 13 points on 5-12 shooting with four boards, three assists and two blocks. Nicks finished with 10 on 5-9 from the field and also grabbed four rebounds and blocked two shots.
Sadie Stotesbery scored a career-high 16 points on 6-9 shooting and 4-4 from three while also pulling down seven boards for the Wolves. Alison Kusler added 12 points and eight assists running the point for NSU much of the afternoon.
The Golden Bears return to action this Tuesday with a big matchup against the #24 Minnesota State Mavericks at the Gangelhoff Center. The Mavericks enter the game with a 7-2 NSIC record, putting them atop the South Division standings while the Golden Bears trail them by a game at 6-3. MSU beat CU 85-66 back on December 1st in Mankato. Tipoff is at 6:00 PM.
