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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team hits the road to take on Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State after sweeping a four game home stand to move their winning streak to eight.
THE MATCH-UPS... The Golden Bears have gone 21-4 all-time against the Golden Eagles and have won 13 straight in that series. UMC's last win over CU came back on January 8th, 2005 in Crookston.
Concordia holds a 26-10 record against Bemidji State all-time. BSU won nine of the first 12 meetings, but CU has won 25 of the last 26.
LAST YEAR VS UM, CROOKSTON... The Golden Bears used a 16-0 run while holding Minnesota, Crookston without a point for over nine and a half minutes in a 60-45 win in the NSIC/Sanford Heatlh Tournament first round at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears were tested as the top seed from the South Division against the North Division's eighth seeded Golden Eagles. UMC led for the middle 15-minutes of play from the 10:30 mark in the first half to the 15:09 mark in the second half. But the Golden Eagles couldn't pull ahead by more than six as Concordia's defense kept them from pulling away.
Whiting led the way with 13 points and 12 rebounds and
Kionda Nicks just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.
CU also won the lone regular season meeting last year 69-44.
LAST YEAR VS BEMIDJI STATE... Concordia cruised to a 76-57 win over the Beavers. Concordia turned up the defense to spark a 16-4 run to take a 37-30 lead with just under a minute left in the first half. The Beavers made a push to regain the lead in the opening minutes of second half, cutting it to one at 41-40, but were unable to get over the hump as the Bears bounced back with a 13-0 run that lasted over five and a half minutes and put the game away. Bemidji State was unable to get into much of a rhythm and spent much of the rest of the half in foul trouble, sending CU to the line 19 times in the half. Concordia eventually pushed the lead out to 23 points at 72-49 with 4:10 left before sending in the reserves.
Rachel Hansen tied a career-high with 23 points on 6-11 from the field and a perfect 11-11 from the line while also adding five rebounds.Â
Anika Whiting was a rebound short of a double-double, finishing with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting and nine boards.
LAST TIME OUT... Concordia-St. Paul swept their fourth straight weekend with a pair of wins over Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State. On Friday,
Carissa Wolyniec hit three three pointers and scored nine points as she became the 26th member of the 1,000 point club at Concordia and set the school record for career threes with 241. CU fell behind 25-12 in the first half but closed out the half on a 17-3 run to regain the lead 29-28. The second half was all Concordia as the Golden Bears hit 59.3% of their shots after the break and outscored the Cougars 49-33 to cruise to the 78-61 win. On Saturday, CU dominated play down low, outscoring the Mustangs 34-20 in the paint. Concordia wasted no time to get going as they scored the first seven points of the game. The Golden Bears wouldn't relinquish the lead the rest of the night. Concordia's post defense held SMSU to just four points in the paint after the half and held them to just 28.0% shooting overall during that span. The Golden Bears went into half holding a 37-28 lead and cruised to a 64-42 win.
BREAKING RECORDS... This season has been an eventful year in the Concordia records department. In addition to seeing three players reach the 1,000 point mark,
Carissa Wolyniec and
Rachel Hansen moved on top of a few lists.
Wolyniec surpassed the record for most career threes made last weekend (previously 240) and now has 245 in her career.
Hansen now holds the career record for free throws made (previously 426) with 457 made free throws in her four years in a CU uniform.
