Women's Basketball | 1.7.15

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (8-5, 4-3 NSIC) opens up a four-game road trip this weekend as they travel to Augustana (9-6, 3-5 NSIC) and #19 Wayne State (11-3, 5-3 NSIC) for a pair of key NSIC South contests.

THE MATCH-UPS... Concordia meets the Vikings for the 21st time in the all-time series as the two teams are an even 10-10 in previous meetings. The Golden Bears have had the adavantage recently as they have won nine of the last 14 matchups.

The Golden Bears take on the Wildcats in the 34th meeting between the two schools with Concordia leading the all-time series 17-16. CU came into the season on a four game winning streak against WSC before Wayne State took the first meeting this year.

BACK ON DEC. 6TH AT THE GANGELHOFF CENTER... Concordia escaped with a thrilling 78-77 win over Augustana at the Gangelhoff Center as Lauren Shifflett gave the Golden Bears the decisive advantage with a tough rebound and a free throw with 10 seconds to play in the game.

Shifflett was tremendous off the bench with a career high 15 points and five rebounds on 4-6 from beyond the arc, including several clutch shots late, and 3-4 from the free throw line.
 
Voneisha Harris also exploded for a career best 16 points as she hit 6-8 from the floor and both of her attempts from three. She also added five rebounds and three assists as well as a block and a steal in the win.

BACK ON DEC. 5TH AT THE GANGELHOFF CENTER... Concordia fell to then-#2 Wayne State 60-57 in a hotly contested game featuring 19 lead changes and eight ties on Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears shot a slightly more effective 32.3% from the floor while WSC shot just 31.1% for the game.  CU also forced 15 turnovers while turning it over 13 times. Wayne State, however, edged out Concordia 45-43 in the rebounding category.

 Amanda Barton paced the Golden Bear offense with a season-high 17 points on 6-16 shooting and 3-9 from beyond the arc as she was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine.

LAST TIME OUT...The Golden Bears swept a big home series over Minnesota Duluth by a score of 75-70 and then-#21 St. Cloud State by a score of 83-80.

Ameshia Kearney earned NSIC South Player of the Week honors as she led Concordia-St. Paul with 19.5 points per game as the Golden Bears went 2-0 on the weekend with wins over UMD and #21 St. Cloud State. She also averaged six assists and five rebounds per game. Her top performance of the weekend came when she scored a season-high 22 points while playing the entire game in an 83-80 win over SCSU.

Anika Whiting also surpassed Jennifer Pozzani as the all-time leading scorer at CU on Friday against UMD and surpassed Lisa Harfield as the all-time leading rebounder on Saturday 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 (13.8 per game) and rebounding (7.5 per game) as she ranks 10th and sixth, respectively. Mishayla Jones has taken control of the point guard position in her second year as she ranks seventh in assists (3.4 per game), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.8), 19th in rebounding (5.8 per game) and 25th in scoring (12.0 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 0.7 blocks per game at 2.6 and has averaged 3.1 in NSIC play. Nicks also led the league last season in the category. She also ranks second during NSIC play with a 4.2 assist/turnover ratio.

Also in NSIC play, Ameshia Kearney ranks second with 4.6 assists per game and Lauren Shifflett is tied for the league lead by shooting 50.0% from beyond the arc.