Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

GAMEDAY LINKS: WATCH | LIVE STATS (FRI) | LIVE STATS (SAT) | GAME NOTES

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University women's basketball team (13-6) heads to Fayette this Friday to take on the Upper Iowa Peacocks (5-11, 4-8 NSIC) before heading to Winona on Saturday to take on the WInona State Warriors (8-8, 4-8 NSIC).

THE MATCH-UPS... Concordia-St. Paul has had great success in their 19 meetings with Upper Iowa.  Concordia has gone 18-1 in those 19 meetings, with the only UIU win coming back on January 8th, 2012.

Saturday's matchup is the 39th meeting between the Golden Bears and Warriors.  CU has a record of 27-11 in the previous 38 contests, but has only won two of the last six.  Concordia has won 10 of the 13 meetings in Winona.

BACK ON DEC. 6... The Golden Bears used a second half surge to claim a 63-57 win over the Winona State.  The Golden Bears overcame a three point deficit at the break to pick up their first conference win of the young season.  Concordia won the battle on the glass with a 38-30 rebounding advantage.  It was a relatively clean game as the Golden Bears only committed six turnovers compared to eight for the Warriors.

Anika Whiting had a team-high 19 points and six rebounds on 4-12 shooting and a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line.  Rachel Hansen filled the box score with 12 points, six boards, four assists and two steals while shooting 5-7 from the floor.

BACK ON DEC. 7... Concordia won the turnover battle in the last meeting against the Peacocks by only committing two turnovers compared to 18 for Upper Iowa.  The Golden Bears led the whole way and built a lead as large as 25 in an 80-63 win.  Leading 6-4 in the opening minutes, Concordia took off for a 13-0 run to open up a 15 point lead (19-4) just over six minutes into play.  The lead stayed at nine or above the rest of the game and was a double-digit margin for the entire second half.  The Golden Bears had a 22-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio and used it's turnover advantage to compile a 15-2 edge in points off turnovers.  The result led to the Golden Bears getting off 70 shots compared to 51 for Upper Iowa. Inside the arc, Concordia shot 30-49 from the floor but 3-21 three-point shooting kept the team's overall percentage to 47.1% (33-70).

The Golden Bears were led by Jodi Batzel with 18 points on 9-14 shooting off the bench, adding four rebounds and two assists. Rachel Hansen and Anika Whiting each scored 16 points, with Hansen dishing nine assists and collecting six rebounds.

LAST TIME OUT... The Golden Bears picked up two huge wins over NSIC South opponents #11 Wayne State and Augustana at home.  The Golden Bears outscored the Wildcats 41-18 in the second half of a 69-50 win as they knocked off WSC for the second time this year, handing them their only two losses on the season.  Concordia went into the break trailing 32-28 but quickly turned the tide in their favor with a 16-3 run to open the second half.  The Golden Bears shot 46.2% from the floor and held the Wildcats to an icy 14.3% in the second half as they cruised to a 19 point victory.  Saturday's game against Augustana was a thriller as the Vikings tied the game late to send the game to overtime, but some last second heroics capped by a buzzer-beating three from Jordyn Dudley gave CU an 81-79 overtime win.  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.

1,000-POINT CLUB... Carissa Wolyniec is closing in on becoming the 26th member of the 1,000-point club as she is just 57 points from reaching the mark.

"FREE" POINTS... Anika Whiting has been nearly automatic from the free throw, hitting 92.1%, good for seventh in the nation.  She has vastly improved that mark after hitting 76.5% in her first two years at CU.