BEMIDJI, Minn. – The Concordia University women's basketball team (9-8, 5-6 NSIC) caught fire on Saturday night in a 103-84 win over Bemidji State (5-12, 2-10 NSIC) on Saturday night. The freshmen duo of Kayla Miller and Lauren Shifflett combined for 28 points in the first half as the Golden Bears put in a season-best 57 points before the break.
 
Miller finished with a career-best 18 points on 7-10 shooting and 3-5 from three in her second start as she also added seven boards and Shifflett put in 19 points on 6-11 and 4-9 from beyond the arc along with three boards in the win.
 
Anika Whiting led the way in the game for Concordia with 27 points on 10-16 from the floor to go with six boards. She has averaged 22.4 points over her last four games.
 
Those three were joined by Amanda Barton and Ameshia Kearney in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Kearney also played the role of distributor with a career-best 12 assists to collect her first double-double of the season.
 
The 103 points were the most in a game for Concordia since they scored 108 against U-Mary back on February 18^th, 2011 and just the 12^th time in the DII-Era they have broken 100 points in game.
 
The 58.5% (38-65) shooting was also the best for CU since the team shot 61.2% at Bemidji State back on January 14^th, 2012.
 
Concordia aided their effort offensively by grabbing 40 rebounds compared to 28 for Bemidji State and finishing with a 30-24 advantage in the paint.
 
Despite playing nearly the entire game with a huge deficit, the Beavers managed to put six players in double figures, led by Sierra Senske's 14 points.
 
The Beavers shot a solid 43.9% (29-66) from the floor and 42.9% (9-21) from three but it fell well short on a night in which the Golden Bear offense shined.
 
The Golden Bears fell behind early as the Beavers quickly built a 10-7 lead but Concordia wasted no time erasing the deficit as they rattled off a 17-3 run to gain a double-digit lead at 24-13 at the 11:57 mark of the first half. Concordia couldn't miss in the early going as they made eight of their first 10 shots and they didn't slow down much as the half progressed.
 
Bemidji State pulled back within six at 24-18 and again within seven at 32-25 but the hot-shooting Golden Bears pulled away again with a 9-0 run to make it 41-27 with 6:33 left in the half. BSU was unable to shrink the deficit below single digits as CU hit 9-13 to close out the half with a 57-41 advantage.
 
Miller was on fire in the first half as she buried all six of her shots, including both of her threes, as well as her only free throw attempt to give her a career-high 15 points in the first half alone.
 
Shifflett wasn't far behind as she scored 13 points, two shy of her career-best, in the half.
 
CU hit an amazing 22-33 (66.7%) in the first half while holding BSU to 36.4% in what was a high-scoring 20 minutes for both squads.
 
The Beavers chipped away in the early parts of the second half as the lead shrunk to 11 at 66-55 but it wouldn't get any closer as Concordia didn't cool off much after the break. The Golden Bears stretched the lead all the way out to 27 with under two minutes left at 102-75 before settling in with a 103-84 victory.
 
Concordia returns home next weekend with Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State coming to town for a pair of NSIC games.