ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 20th-ranked Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (23-5) advances to the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament semifinals with an 80-65 win over Northern State (15-12) at Gangelhoff Center on Saturday night.  With the win, the Golden Bears have now won 15 straight and 20 of their last 21, avenging their last loss which was to Northern State on January 19 in St. Paul.

The Golden Bears came out firing, hitting their first six shots and nine of their first 12 to jump out to a 21-9 lead in the opening nine minutes of the first half.  Northern State clawed their way back into the game with a 13-2 run, cutting the Concordia lead to one at 24-23.  They eventually pulled even at 28 with just over four minutes remaining in the half. CU responded with a 12-1 run to finish with a double digit lead at 40-29 at the break.

Concordia's offense slowed down for much of the middle part of the first half, but still shot 15-25 (60%) as a team.  The offense was balanced with six players scoring four points or more in the first 20 minutes (Whiting 9, Hansen 8, Haynes 7, Poke 5, Nicks 4, Barton 4).

The Wolves forced the ball down to Rachel Krogman early and often and she responded with 13 points on 3-6 from the field and 7-10 from the free throw line.

NSU made a quick 6-0 run a few minutes into the second half that cut the Concordia lead to seven at 45-38, but Amanda Barton (Waterville, Minn.) responded with a three to push the lead back to double digits.  The lead never fell below 10 for the rest of the night.  Concordia went 4-4 from distance during a four and half minute period in the middle of the second half which stretched the lead to 68-49 and effectively put the game out of hand.

Mandy Poke (Richfield, Minn. ) came off the bench to provide a spark for the Bears, scoring 13 points on 5-7 shooting and 3-5 from three while also collecting seven boards, four assists and five steals.  Anika Whiting (Ashland, Wis. ) finshed the night with a team-high 19 points and was an efficient 7-11 from the field.  Rachel Hansen (Eagan, Minn. ) did her usual thing filling up the stat sheet with 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.

The Bears shot 29-56 (51.8%) from the field and 11-25 (44.0%) from beyond the arc in the game and forced 17 NSU turnovers to maintain their lead from start to finish despite being outrebounded 37-28.

Krogman was a force for Northern State, finishing with a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double in the loss.  Alison Kusler was the only other Wolves player in double figures with 12 points.

CU is now 19-6 all-time in the NSIC Tournament and advances to the semifinals for the ninth time in school history, going 6-2 in the previous six appearances.  Concordia will be taking on the Augustana Vikings (22-6) for just the second time ever in the tournament, winning 68-58 in the semifinals back in 2009.  The Golden Bears swept the Vikings in NSIC regular season play. The semifinal game will take place at Taylor Arena in Rochester, Minn. at 5 p.m. on Friday, March, 8.  The winner will advance to the championship to play for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament.