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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (22-5, 19-3 NSIC) hosts the fourth seed from the North, Northern State (15-11, 11-11 NSIC) in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament in quarterfinal action. Concordia, the 20th ranked team in the country, is coming off a 60-45 first round victory against Minnesota, Crookston, and NSU defeated Wayne State 69-59.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $2 for students. As an official postseason event, season passes and pass lists are not honored for NSIC Tournament contests.
The winner advances to the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament semifinals and will play the winner of the No. 2 U-Mary / No. 3 Augustana quarterfinal game. The game will be played at Taylor Arena in Rochester on Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m.
Concordia is red-hot, having won 19 of the last 20 games overall and 14-straight. They've moved up from 24 in the country to the current position at 20, and are ranked third in the NCAA Central Region Rankings that debuted last Wednesday and will update this Wednesday afternoon.
With the winning streak, the Golden Bears were able to capture the program's fifth NSIC Regular Season overall championship, and picked up the first NSIC South Division championship in team history with this being the first year of divisional play.
The Golden Bears have been successful in their tournament history, going 18-6 overall. This year marks the first season with the new 16 team tournament format. In past years it has only taken three wins compared to the four needed to claim the title this year. Concordia and Northern State have met two previous times in the tournament with each team taking one game. The last meeting came back in 2011 in a semifinal matchup with #3 CU grabbing a 74-67 victory over #2 NSU. This is the fifth time CU has claimed the first seed and they have gone 10-2 in those years, winning two of those tournaments. They have reached the championship six times overall, winning three of them.
On the line is an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament, which is awarded to the NSIC Tournament champion. All 16 teams in the conference tournament are eligible for NCAA postseason play.
Back on January 12th, The Northern State Wolves handed the Golden Bears their last loss with a 63-50 road win. The Wolves stifled the Bears, holding them to just 31.4% shooting and forcing 16 turnovers. NSU also used a size advantage to win the battle on the glass, outrebounding CU by a margin of 39-31.
