ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (5-4, 1-2 NSIC) dropped their NSIC home opener to #11 Winona State (11-0, 4-0 NSIC) by a score of 84-66 on Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears made things interesting with a strong start in the first half but the high-powered, league-leading Warriors offense proved to be too much as they pulled away in the second half. Concordia connected on 36.6% (26-71) while Winona State hit an impressive 50.8% (33-65) from the floor, including marks at 50.0% or above in three of the four quarters. WSU was even better from beyond the arc as they hit 52.9% (9-17) compared to 21.7% (5-23) for the Golden Bears.
Concordia did a nice job taking care of the basketball with just seven turnovers in a game that featured only 15 in total and cleaned up on the offensive glass with a 16-10 advantage in that category but they weren't able to capitalize on that as Winona State held a 17-11 edge in second chance points.
Freshman
Anna Schmitt was extremely active on both ends of the court for the Golden Bears as she matched a game high and fell just one point shy of her career best with 21 points on 10-18 shooting to go along with three rebounds, three assists and three steals in a hefty 38 minutes of action.
Kyrah Fredenburg, the NSIC leader in rebounding heading into the night, continued to add to that total with 13 boards as she also put up a career-high 13 points on 5-10 from the field. She also added a career-best three threes made on six attempts.
Lauren Shifflett was the only other Golden Bear in double figures with 10 points while
Kionda Nicks contributed seven points, seven rebounds, six assists and a pair of blocks on the night.
For the Warriors, Connor Nagle caught fire from deep and hit five threes to match Schmitt for the game high with 21 points to go along with eight rebounds and three assists. She was joined by Tara Roelofs and Alexis Foley as they finished with 14 and 12, respectively.
After falling behind 5-0 to start the game, the Golden Bears burst out and took over with a 14-3 run over a five minute span as they looked to hand WSU their first loss of the year. CSP eventually added to the lead a few minutes later to bring their lead to the largest of the night at 17-10 and again 19-12 before the Warriors answered back. Over the final three minutes of the opening quarter, Winona State rattled off 13-4 run to go into the second quarter with a three point advantage.
That lead reached six with a three to open the second quarter, but the Golden Bears battled back to regain the lead at 32-21 and again at 34-33 with 3:52 left in the half. That would be the last lead of the night for Concordia as the Golden Bears were held without a point the rest of the half as they saw their lead turned into a 44-34 deficit heading into the locker room.
The Warriors continued to add to their lead after the break as they didn't allow CSP to pull within single digits the rest of the night. Their lead hit 20, the largest of the night, with a score of 63-43 at the 3:22 mark of the third quarter, but the Golden Bears showed some resilience as they cut into the lead and made things interesting. Concordia would pull as close as 13 before the end of the quarter as they headed into into the fourth with a 65-52 lead.
Concordia continued to close the gap early in the fourth as they pulled within 11 at 67-56 with 8:04 to play but they weren't able to get any closer as Winona State once again pulled away. The pushed their lead back to 19 with just under four minutes left before closing out the win by a score of 84-66.
CSP will look to pick up the weekend split tomorrow afternoon as they take on Upper Iowa at 4 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center.
