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Photos by Sport PIX
ROCHESTER, Minn. - The 20th-ranked Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (23-6) had its 15-game winning streak snapped on Friday evening wit a 55-43 loss to Augustana (23-6) in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament Semifinals played at Mayo Civic Center's Taylor Arena.
Concordia falls to 6-3 all-time in the NSIC Tournament Semifinal round and is now 1-1 against Augustana in the NSIC Tournament which was also a semifinal contest played in 2009. Concordia is 2-1 head-to-head with the Vikings this season.
Concordia's all-time NSIC Tournament record falls to 19-7, and 11-3 in five trips as a number one seed.
In the defensive slugfest, it was Augustana that was able to avenge two earlier season losses at the hands of the Golden Bears. Augustana held Concordia to just 4-of-23 (17.4%) shooting in the second half 15-of-52 (28.8%) for the night. The Vikings also forced 18 Golden Bear turnovers while committing 12 which led to a 14-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
The game was close for much of the night, though as the game featured three ties and four lead changes in the first seven and a half minutes.
Rachel Hansen (Eagan, Minn.) converted a layup to give Concordia an early 9-7 lead just over five minutes into the game and
Mandy Poke (Richfield, Minn.) made a layup nearly a minute later that allowed the Golden Bears to reclaim a slim 11-10 lead.
Augustana responded with the first of two key runs in the game, a 10-2 charge that opened up the largest deficit of the first half, a 7-point Augie lead (20-13) with 8:01 to play in the half.
While the run propelled the first real advantage for either side in the game, it was more of a prolonged experience that dictated the tone for the rest of the night.
Concordia scored just two points over nearly six and a half minutes of basketball and the Vikings never lost the lead the rest of the night.
The Golden Bears charged back and narrowed the gap to a one point margin at the break, 29-28, with a shot missing at the buzzer that would've taken the lead.
In the second half, Concordia had two more possessions to take the lead early, but committed turnovers in the opening minutes on each possession allowing Augustana to get the first bucket of the half.
Kionda Nicks (St. Paul, Minn.) hit a jumper with 18:08 to play in the game to bring the score to 31-30 in the close contest.
But Concordia went scoreless for nearly five and a half minutes after the Nicks jumper while Augustana was able to score 10 unanswered points as part of a 16-2 run that covered over eight minutes of the second half.
The result was a 15-point Augustana lead with just over 10 minutes to play in the contest.
Augustana wasn't done extended the lead, as it opened up an 18-point margin with 6:24 left in the game. That marked the largest lead of the night as Augustana outscored Concordia 24-7 in the first 13:36 of the second half.
The Golden Bears narrowed the margin back to 12 with 1:42 to play but from there the two teams each went scoreless until the final whistle.
In the decisive second half, it was Augustana using the high-low which had worked at varying points of the first half for the Golden Bears. The result was a 20-6 margin in the paint in the final 20 minutes in favor of the Vikings.
Concordia was led in the game by the NSIC Player of the Year,
Anika Whiting (Ashland, Wis.), with 14 points. She had 11 points in the opening period and closed out the night with seven rebounds.
Poke added nine points and five rebounds off the bench while Nicks had four points, six rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals to fill the stat sheet for Concordia.
Augustana was led by point guard Emily Schulte with 19 points while Lydia Nelson had 14 points and five steals. The Golden Bears held Alex Feeney, one of the top posts in the league, to just three points on 1-of-8 shooting but it was Andrea Whitney off the bench who was effective inside with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting. She was 3-of-3 in the second half.
Concordia's defense was once again effective overall, holding the offensive-minded Vikings to just 55 points on 39.0% (23-59) shooting.
Both teams were cold from behind the arc, with Concordia hitting 2-of-13 and Augustana hitting 2-of-14 from distance.
Augustana advances to the 2013 NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament Championship game tomorrow at 3 p.m. and will play #17 Minnesota State for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament.
Concordia entered play slotted third in the NCAA Central Region Rankings. The top eight teams in the region advance to the NCAA Central Region Tournament at a site to be announced (typically top seed). The NSIC and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) each have automatic qualifiers, while the Great American Conference (GAC) does not, but teams can qualify for the at-large selections.
The NSIC's teams competing for the auto-bid, MSU and Augie, are each ranked in the region's top-eight which provides security for Concordia's inclusion in the field, but the only teams assured selection are winners of the NSIC and MIAA Tournaments.
To find out if Concordia will be selected to the regional tournament, and what seed they'll draw and who they'd play,
watch the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament selection show Sunday, March 10 at 9 p.m. central time on NCAA.com.
The Central Region Tournament runs from March 15, 16 and 18 at a site to be announced.
