ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (6-5, 2-3 NSIC) returns to their home court in the New Year as they host Minnesota Duluth (5-5, 3-3 NSIC) and #21 St. Cloud State (8-1, 5-1 NSIC) at the Gangehoff Center.

THE MATCH-UPS... Concordia meets the Bulldogs for the 40th time in the all-time series on Friday night. UMD holds a 20-19 advantage in the overall series but CU has controlled the matchup in recent years as they have won nine of 11 dating back to 2007. The Golden Bears have also had success against the Bulldogs in St. Paul as they have gone 11-6 on their home court.

The Golden Bears take on the Huskies in the 28th meeting between the two schools. SCSU holds a 15-12 advantage in previous meetings but CU has gone 6-2 in the last eight meetings since 2010. Concordia has hosted only nine of the all-time meetings, going 5-4 at home.

LAST YEAR VS UMD AT THE GANGELHOFF CENTER... Rachel Hansen became the 25th member of the 1,000 point club at Concordia as the then-#20 Concordia got back in the win column with a 95-63 win against the Minnesota Duluth.

The offense was clicking all night long as the Golden Bears easily set a new season high with 95 points.  The 95 points were the most in a game for CU since a 108-74 win over U-Mary on February 18th, 2011.

Hansen scored 20 points on 6-9 shooting and 7-8 from the line and Ameshia Kearney had a game-high 23 points on 7-12 and 5-7 from three in the win.

LAST YEAR VS SCSU AT THE GANGELHOFF CENTER... Concordia took care of the Huskies in a 67-61 win in St. Paul.

Concordia used a strong first half, shooting 57.7% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, to build a solid lead before withstanding a potential St. Cloud State comeback.  Foul trouble plagued the Golden Bears as Anika Whiting was limited to just four points in just 15 minutes of play before fouling out and Rachel Hansen also picked up four fouls but managed to stay in the game.

With several key players in foul trouble, Cariss Wolyniec provided the spark offensively with 19 points on 7-11 shooting, including 5-8 from three. Hansen scored 13 of her 15 points on the afternoon in the second half along with a team-high five boards in the game.  Ameshia Kearney also provided a stabilizing presence with 10 points on 4-10 from the floor to go along with four assists.

LAST TIME OUT...The Golden Bears saw a first half lead disappear in a 64-60 loss at home against Minnesota State back on Dec. 20th.

The Golden Bears shot just 28.6% from the floor after the break while the Mavericks connected on 41.4% during that span. The two teams finished with comparable percentages as MSU hit 37.7% (23-61) for the game while CU shot 35.3% (24-68).
 
Senior Ameshia Kearney was explosive during stretches as she scored a team-high 18 points despite hitting just 7-20 from the floor. She also added four steals and three assists in the loss. Caitlyn Russell stayed hot in her second consecutive start as she picked up her first career double-double with 12 points and 10 boards in 21 minutes.

APPROACHING HISTORY... Anika Whiting entered her senior season with 1,485 points, just 162 shy of Jennifer Pozzani as the all-time leading scorer at Concordia. Whiting has scored 158 points through her first 11 games this season to pull within four of Pozzani for the record. With the Golden Bears at home this weekend, Whiting should have an excellent shot of surpassing the mark on her home court. The senior also entered the season as the second-leading rebounder in program history and sits just five rebounds shy of Lisa Harfield's record 742 career rebounds.