ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (5-6, 1-4 NSIC) opens up 2016 with a trip to Minnesota Duluth (2-7, 2-4 NSIC) and St. Cloud State (5-4, 5-1 NSIC) for a pair of matinee games on Saturday and Sunday. Both games are set to tip off at 2 p.m.

BEHNKE MAKES HEAD COACHING DEBUT
Amanda Behnke was elevated to interim head coach last weekend and will be making her head coaching debut this weekend. Now the ninth head coach in team history, Behnke is in her fourth season on the Concordia coaching staff and second year as the program's top assistant following a two year stint as the graduate assistant. She was part of the coaching staff that helped the program win an NSIC Tournament championship, NCAA Central Region Tournament Championship and an Elite Eight appearance in 2013-14 along with an NSIC Regular Season title in 2012-13.

Behnke was one of the top post players in program history as a student-athlete and was a two-time All-Central Region performer and two-time NSIC Player of the Year. She led the team to back-to-back Northern Sun regular season and tournament championships.

UMD SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Bulldogs have matched up evenly over the years with each team claiming 20 wins in the 40 meetings in the all-time series. After UMD controlled the series early, CSP has dominated over the past few years. Concordia has won nine of the last 11 overall and two of the last three in Duluth.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
Concordia's 75-70 win in St. Paul proved to be a historic one as Anika Whiting surpassed Jennifer Pozzani for the Concordia career record in scoring of 1,647 in the win.

The Golden Bears trailed by as many as seven in the second half as they came from behind to get back in the win column. CU connected on 57.1% (16-28) of their shots after the break and held the Bulldogs to just 35.5% (11-31) during that span.

Concordia also held a decisive advantage on the glass as they out-rebounded UMD 44-34 and grabbed 15 offensive boards in the win. The Golden Bears parlayed that margin to 15-2 advantage in second chance points to aid the effort. CU dominated in the paint as well as they out-scored Minnesota Duluth 38-16 down low.
 
SCSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia holds a 13-15 record against St. Cloud State heading into the 29th meeting between the two schools. The Golden Bears have been more successful recently, however, as they have won seven of the past nine meetings, including the last four in a row. CSP has won their last two in a row in St. Cloud with their last loss there coming back in 2010.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
Concordia came from behind before surviving a late run in an 83-80 win in St. Paul.

The Golden Bears shot the lights out in the second half to erase a first half deficit in a comeback victory. CU hit a sizzling 64.0% (16-25) from the floor and limited the Huskies to 35.5% (11-31) after the break. Concordia shot an even 50.0% (26-52) for the game while SCSU finished at 38.8% (26-67).

Ameshia Kearney scored a season-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists in the win for the Golden Bears. Mishayla Jones provided her second biggest scoring outburst of her career to that point with 19 points on an efficient 7-12 from the free throw line.

LAST TIME OUT
Back on December 19th, the Golden Bears nearly erased a 22-point fourth quarter deficit as they fell just short in a 92-87 loss to Minnesota State at Taylor Center.

The Golden Bears trailed by double digits for nearly the entire second half, including an 83-61 deficit with 7:01 to play, before making a furious comeback down the stretch to make it a one possession game in the final minute before running out of time.

The Golden Bears trailed by double digits for nearly the entire second half, including an 83-61 deficit with 7:01 to play, before making a furious comeback down the stretch to make it a one possession game in the final minute before running out of time.

NSIC LEADERS
The Golden Bears have seen several different players shine in different areas this season with five different players registering in as top-10 performers in six different statistical categories in the conference.

Perhaps most impressively, Kyrah Fredenburg has been a vacuum on the glass with a league-leading 10.4 boards per game, a mark that is 0.9 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Offensively, Lauren Shifflett leads the way with 15.5 points per game, good for seventh in the NSIC,  while she also ranks seventh in threes mades per game (2.1), ninth in three point percentage (35.9%) and 10th in field goal percentage (44.3%).

In addition, the duo of Caitlyn Russell and Mishayla Jones rank near the top in the NSIC in blocks and steals, respectively. Russell sits in sixth in blocks per game with 1.6 while Jones sits in fourth with 2.2 steals per game. Jones also ranks 10th with 3.5 assists per game.

Schmitt also sits in ninth in steals with 1.9 per game along with fifth in the league with an impressive 49.6% field goal percentage.