ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University women's basketball team (19-6, 14-4 NSIC) continued their winning ways with a 64-42 win over Southwest Minnesota State (4-18, 2-16 NSIC) on Senior Night at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears have now won eight in a row at home and eight in a row overall.

Concordia's two seniors didn't disappoint in their final regular season games for the Golden Bears. 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. She hit four threes to add to the school record she set last night.

Anika Whiting narrowly missed her third straight game with 20+ points as she finished the night with 19 points, five rebounds and two steals.



The Golden Bears dominated play down low, outscoring the Mustangs 34-20 in the paint. Jodi Batzel was a big part of that off the bench with eight points, six boards, two assists and two blocks in 24 minutes.

Ellen Degler had an effective night for SMSU and was the only Mustang in double figures with 11 points, five rebounds and three steals.  Leading scorer Alison Nagel was held to just two points on 1-10 shooting, but she did manage to pull down nine boards.

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. The closest the Mustangs were able to get was two points as they cut the lead to 15-13 on a Degler layup with 12:34 to go in the first half, but five straight points for CU extended the lead back to seven.  Concordia eventually pushed the lead to double digits near the end of the half and settled with a 37-28 lead going into the break.

The lead quickly grew to 16 in the opening minutes of the second half with a flurry from the big three in Whiting, Hansen and Wolyniec and the lead wouldn't fall back below double digits the rest of the night. It eventually ballooned to 20 in the final minutes as Concordia claimed the 64-42 win.

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.

Concordia completes their regular season schedule with a four game road trip to Minnesota Crookston, Bemidji State, Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls. The Golden Bears remain tied with Minnesota State in second place in the NSIC South. The two teams sit two games behind division leader Wayne State.