ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (4-3, 0-1 NSIC) fell to #2 Wayne State 60-57 in a hotly contested game featuring 19 lead changes and eight ties on Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center. The Wildcats were led by Jordan Spencer's 19 points and 12 rebounds in a physical, grind-it-out game.
The Golden Bears shot a slightly more effective 32.3% from the floor while WSC shot just 31.1% for the game. CU also forced 15 turnovers while turning it over 13 times. Wayne State, however, edged out Concordia 45-43 in the rebounding category.
Amanda Barton paced the Golden Bear offense with a season-high 17 points on 6-16 shooting and 3-9 from beyond the arc as she was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine.
Anika Whiting finished the evening with a double-double of her own with 14 points on 5-12 from the floor and 12 boards.
CU Women's BB vs. Wayne State 12.5.2014 - Images by
Justin Oakman Kionda Nicks made an impact with six blocks, five rebounds, five assists and three steals despite not scoring a point in the game.
Ameshia Kearney and
Mishayla Jones each added 12 points as well.
Spencer was a force for WSC with 19 points on 9-16 shooting as she matched Whiting's total of 12 boards.
Maggie Schulte also finished with a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds as she hit 5-9 from the field.
Concordia built an early 9-5 lead following a pair of three and a Kearney free throw but the Wildcats bounced back with a 12-2 run to make it 17-11 in their favor with 11:55 to go in the first half. CU took the lead back at 18-17 on a Jones jumper three minutes later before the teams traded blows much of the rest of the half. Spencer eventually pushed the lead to eight at 31-23 with just under two minutes to go but a pair of Kearney threes cut it to 31-29 heading into the break.
The second half was a back-and-forth affair with the two teams trading the lead 10 times along with five ties. Neither team was able to build a lead larger than three until the final minutes Concordia matched their largest lead of the half at 52-49 on a three from Barton with 3:57 to play, but Spencer and Schulte followed it up with buckets to give Wayne the lead back. Whiting gave CU their final lead at 54-53 with 1:06 left but the Wildcats took control at the free throw line hitting six in a row to build a 59-55 lead with just 12 seconds to go. Barton hit a pair from the line with 1.8 seconds left but it was too late as Ashton Yossi added a final free throw to bring it to the final score of 70-67.
Concordia is back in action tomorrow at 4 p.m. against Augustana at the Gangelhoff Center.
