ST. PAUL, Minn. - Sophomore
Jordyn Dudley hit a game-winning three as time expired to give the Concordia University women's basketball team (13-6, 8-4 NSIC) an 81-79 win in overtime against Augustana (10-6, 6-6 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon. The win gave the Golden Bears a sweep of the weekend and a sweep of Augustana in the regular season as CU pulled even with Minnesota State in second place in the NSIC South.
Dudley registered a total of 12 seconds of time on the court for Concordia, but came through when it mattered most. Concordia came out of a timeout after grabbing a crucial offensive rebound off of a missed free throw from
Rachel Hansen with just 1.8 seconds remaining down 79-78 with one shot to win the game. The final play left Dudley, who entered the game at the timeout, all by herself beyond the arc as she calmly buried the three to lift the Golden Bears past the Vikings and sparked her teammates to mob her in celebration
Just minutes earlier it appeared Augustana was going to prevail as Shaunteva Ashley hit a pair of free throws to give her squad a 77-74 lead with 1:00 to go. A pair of turnovers put the ball in
Rachel Hansen's hand as she hit a three with 34 seconds to go to tie the game at 77. Emily Schulte dribbled the clock down for the Vikings before driving to the hoop and hitting a layup with just six seconds to go. She followed up the basket by committing a foul to put
Rachel Hansen to the line with three seconds left. Hansen hit the first before missing the second, which set up the heroics to end the game.
Hansen got to the free throw line 13 times, hitting eight, as she led CU with 21 points while also collecting five rebounds and five assists.
Anika Whiting wasn't fas behind with 18 points to go along with eights boards and six assists.
Ameshia Kearney was the third member of the Golden Bears to reach double digits with 18 points and five rebounds while hitting 7-8 from the stripe.
Concordia outshot Augustana by a margin of 42.6% to 34.7% and picked up 17 assists compared to just eight for the Vikings in what proved to be the difference.
Shaunteva Ashley led the charge for Augie with a game-high 23 points as well as four assists and three rebounds as she hit all 10 of her free throws. Riley Nordgaard also proved to be everywhere for the Vikings with 20 points, 15 boards, five steals and four assists.
Augustana built an early 11-7 lead but it wouldn't last long as a 9-2 run gave the Golden Bears a 16-13 advantage. CU continued to build a lead as they eventually pushed it to nine at 36-27 with 1:20 to go in the first half. Augie would slightly close the gap to 37-31 going into the break.
The lead quickly disappeared in the second half as Augie put in nine of the first 13 points of the half to cut the lead to one. The two teams traded blows for much of the rest of regulation in a half that featured four ties and eight lead changes. A three point play from Kearney appeared to give the Golden Bears a decisive four point advantage at 69-65 with 1:14 to go but four free throws, including three for Nordgaard on a foul on a three point attempt with 11 seconds to go that tied the game. and send it to overtime.
The win for the Golden Bears improves their all-time mark to 9-10 against the Vikings as they completed the regular season sweep. Concordia is back in action next weekend as they hit the road to Upper Iowa and Winona State before four home games to close out the regular season home slate.
