ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team took a crucial conference game against #20 Minnesota State by a score of 83-68. With the win the Golden Bears pull even with the Mavericks in the NSIC South Division standings at 7-3 and a game behind the first placed-Augustana Vikings. CU has now won three straight games against ranked opponents and improves to 3-1 overall against ranked foes. Concordia moves to 9-5 overall while Mankato drops to 11-3.
The two teams came out running early in the first half with some back and forth play. They traded buckets for the first few minutes with MSU taking a 10-8 lead on an Ali Wilkinson layup with 16:42 left in the half. Concordia then ran out to a 12 point lead at 24-12 with 10:57 left thanks to a 16-2 run sparked by a scrappy effort on the defensive end. The Mavericks responded with a 6-0 run of their own, cutting the lead to six. The Golden Bears stretched it back out to 36-23 on a flurry of baskets from
Anika Whiting (Ashland, Wis. ), capped off with a three with 2:53 left in the first. MSU brought it back to 36-28 going into the break.
Concordia used some sticky fingers in the first half, forcing nine turnovers with seven steals.
Rachel Hansen (Eagan, Minn. ) had a big half with six points, five boards, five assists, three steals and a block. Whiting led the way in scoring for the Bears with 13 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting and 2-2 from the line. MSU leading scorer Ali Wilkinson paced the Mavs with seven points and Anna Leloux added 10 rebounds in the first 20 minutes. CU held the Mavs to 34.3% from the field, 10% below their season average, while shooting 38.9% themselves.
The Bears came out firing in the second half and ran the score up to 47-31 with 16:54 left on a Whiting jumper. The Mavericks cut it back down to single digits at 51-43 but were unable to get the lead back down below 10 the rest of the way. The lead ballooned all the way out to 68-48 after a pair of
Carissa Wolyniec (Minneapolis, Minn. ) threes forced a MSU timeout. Concordia cruised to an 83-68 victory.
The Golden Bears used some hot shooting in the second half to pull away from the Mavericks, shooting a scintillating 59.1% in the second half. Mankato was held to 38.2% in the second half and finished the game at 36.2%. Concordia dominated the glass in the second half by outrebounding the Mavs 23-13 and 47-37 overall. CU also collected 21 assists on their 27 field goals and swiped the ball 13 times from MSU.
Anika Whiting had another huge game for Concordia, scoring 28 points on 11-17 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line while also chipping in six rebounds.
Rachel Hansen barely missed a rare triple-double with an outstanding state line of 10 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and four steals. Wolyniec also helped carry the offensive load by putting in 18 points on 5-11 shooting, including 4-9 from beyond the arc.
Kionda Nicks (St. Paul, Minn.) had her own personal block party, blocking six shots to go with her six points, five boards and two steals.
The Mavericks were led by Ali Wilkinson who scored 23 points on a solid 8-13 from the field and pulled down eight rebounds. Alli Hoeffer also had nine points, five rebounds and five assists for Mankato.
The Bears hit the road this weekend and head to Duluth and St. Cloud to take on the Bulldogs and Huskies, respectively. Both games are key matchups against the two leaders of the NSIC North Division as the Golden Bears look to improve their standing in the playoff race. The games will be available to watch online or follow on live stats.
