MANKATO, Minn. - The #20 Concordia University women's basketball team (9-4, 4-2 NSIC) took their second conference loss to their travel partner #23 Minnesota State (7-3, 4-2 NSIC) 80-67 at the Taylor Center in Mankato on Saturday afternoon.
Turnovers and rebounding proved to give the Mavericks the deciding edge as the two teams pulled even in the competitive NSIC South standings. MSU outrebounded the Golden Bears 52-42 and forced 17 CU tunovers compared to nine of their own. The result was a 28-9 advantage in second chance points and a 19-4 advantage in points off turnovers for Minnesota State.
CU shot 42.4% compared to just 34.7% for MSU from the field but it wouldn't be enough to pull out the win.
Concordia received a big effort from
Anika Whiting as she poured in 25 points on 10-17 shooting and 5-5 from the free throw line and grabbed nine boards.
Whiting was joined by
Ameshia Kearney and
Rachel Hansen in double figures as each had 10 points. Hansen now stands just 11 points shy of becoming the 25th member of the 1,000 point club in a Golden Bear uniform. Making her season debut,
Tierra Bender also provided a spark off the bench with nine points, five assists and four rebounds in 22 minutes of play.
Ali Wilkinson had a huge afternoon for the Mavericks, scoring a game-high 29 points on 12-23 from the field to go along with nine rebounds and four steals. Wilkinson had 18 points and six rebounds going into the break as MSU built a big lead early. Britney Scherber chipped in 13 points on 4-9 shooting off the bench in 23 minutes for Minnesota State.
Concordia held a 15-14 lead with 12:13 left in the first half, but an 11-0 MSU run just a few minutes later gave the Mavericks a 31-19 with 7:40 to go in the half. CU got it back down to seven at 33-26 but Minnesota State scored 10 of the next 12 to balloon the lead to 15. MSU went into the break holding a 43-31 lead.
The lead was back out to 15 with 15:34 left but Concordia cut it to seven with eight straight points to make it 50-43 with 12:41 to go in the game. Concordia wouldn't get any closer as MSU pushed the lead back out to double digits and cruised to an 80-67 win.
Concordia is off next weekend before returning home to take on Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State at the Gangelhoff Center on January 3rd and 4th.
