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 (19-8, 14-6 NSIC) closes out the regular season with a trip to Southwest Minnesota State (4-20, 2-18 NSIC) and Sioux Falls (12-12, 8-12 NSIC).

THE MATCH-UPS... Concordia holds a 29-16 record all-time against the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs and have dominated the series recently.  The Golden Bears have won 25 of the last 27 meetings.  CU is 9-5 all-time in Marshall.

The Golden Bears take on Sioux Falls in their fifth meeting all-time.  CU has won all three meetings since the Cougars joined the NSIC.

BACK ON FEBRUARY 8TH... 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.

Rachel Hansen picked up her fourth double-double on the year with 10 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals and Carissa Wolyniec added 15 points, three boards and two steals while connecting on four threes.

BACK ON FEBRUARY 7TH... 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.

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.

Anika Whiting also hit a milestone this evening as she scored a career-high 31 points on 12-17 shooting and 7-7 from the free throw line.  It was the 28th 30 point game with Whiting becoming the 21st different player to score 30 in a game and the first since Maurika Hickman in 2010-11.  She also pulled in nine boards and dished out three assists.

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.  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 had their eight game winning streak snapped in a trip north to take on Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State. The Golden Bears dropped a heartbreaking 59-58 loss to the Golden Eagles on Friday. UMC's Alexa Thielman hit a shot from the corner with 14 seconds to go to give Crookston the decisive advantage. On Saturday, the Golden Bears offense stalled out in a 52-49 loss. The 49 points were a season-low for CU as the Golden Bears were held to just 21 points in the second half and no points in the final 3:47 of the game.

LEAGUE LEADERS... The Golden Bears have three different players that come into the weekend leading the lead in major categories.  Rachel Hansen's 4.78 assists per game is good for tops in the league. She also led the league in assists last season. Kionda Nicks, meanwhile, holds a sizable lead in the blocks per game category.  Her 2.52 blocks per game is almost half a block per game more than anyone else.  Carissa Wolyniec comes in with an NSIC best 2.74 threes made per game.

FESSLER NOTES... Head coach Paul Fessler is closing in on two major milestones in his coaching career. He is two wins away from 300 in his career and three wins away from 200 at Concordia.  One more win would also give him 20+ wins in 11 of his 14 seasons at the helm for the Golden Bears.