Women's Basketball | 1.21.15
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University women's basketball team (9-8, 5-6 NSIC) returns home for a pair of NSIC South Division games as Sioux Falls (13-3, 9-3 NSIC) and Southwest Minnesota State (2-14, 2-10 NSIC) come to town.
Friday night is Navy Night at the Gangelhoff Center and all fans are encouraged to wear navy to the game. The first 75 students wearing navy to the game will receive free Green Mill Pizza. Saturday's game will feature Timberwolves promotions at halftime as well. Also, the weekend is also the third annual "It's a Slam Dunk-Don't Drive Drunk" weekend in honor of Drake Bigler, son of Southwest Minnesota State's men's basketball coach Brad Bigler, who was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver in July of 2012.
THE MATCH-UPS... Concordia takes on Sioux Falls for the seventh time in the all-time series with the Golden Bears winning five of the first six meetings. After the Cougars won the first meeting back in 1988, CU has rattled off five straight wins (four since USF joined the NSIC) in the series.
Concordia has had a much more extensive history against Southwest Minnesota State, going 30-16 in 46 previous meetings. The Golden Bears have dominated the series recently, winning five in a row, dating back to the 2011 season.
LAST YEAR VS USF...
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 in a 78-61 win over Sioux Falls at the Gangelhoff Center.
Whiting added her first of three career 30-point games in her career with 31 on 12-17 shooting and 7-7 from the line to go along with nine rebounds and three assists.
The second half proved to be all Golden Bears as CU hit 59.3% of their shots after the break and outscored the Cougars 49-33 to cruise to the win. Concordia took advantage down low as Whiting scored 20 points in the second half and CU outscored USF 18-8 in the paint.
LAST YEAR VS SMSU... Concordia cruised to a 64-42 win over SMSU at the Gangelhoff Center.
Concordia's two seniors didn't disappoint in their final regular season home game 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 with four threes made
The Golden Bears dominated play down low, outscoring the Mustangs 34-20 in the paint.
LAST TIME OUT... Last weekend, the Golden Bears split a road series with Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State.
In a 73-61 loss to UMC on Friday, The Golden Bears struggled to get much going on the offensive end as they hit just 32.9% (24-73) from the field while the Golden Eagles hit 35.6% (21-59). UMC got a huge boost from the free throw line by going 24-28 (85.7%) compared to 6-8 (75.0%) for CU.
Concordia caught fire on Saturday night in a 103-84 win over Bemidji State 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.
Three weekends ago, Whiting surpassed Jennifer Pozzani as the all-time leading scorer at CU against UMD and surpassed Lisa Harfield as the all-time leading rebounder against SCSU.
LEAGUE LEADERS... Concordia has several players that rank near the league lead in multiple statistical categories so far this season.
In addition to becoming the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at CU,
Anika Whiting ranks in the top-10 in both scoring (15.8 per game) and rebounding (7.4 per game) as she ranks ninth and sixth, respectively.
Mishayla Jones has taken control of the point guard position in her second year as she ranks 11th in assists (3.2 per game), fourth in assist/turnover ratio (1.8), 18th in rebounding (5.9 per game) and 30th in scoring (11.5 per game) as she has produced in a diverse way.
Perhaps the most impressive performance in a single category has come from
Kionda Nicks, CU's all-time and single-season leader in blocks, as she leads the NSIC by 0.6 block per game at 2.7 and has averaged 3.1 in NSIC play. Nicks also led the league last season in the category. She also ranks first during NSIC play with a 3.5 assist/turnover ratio and 12th in assists at 3.2 per game.
