Women's Basketball | 12.9.15

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (5-3, 1-1 NSIC) kicks off their home NSIC slate this weekend as they play host to #11 Winona State (10-0, 3-0 NSIC) and Upper Iowa (2-7, 1-2 NSIC) at the Gangelhoff Center. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday.

TOYS FOR TOTS & DAY OF HEROES
Concordia athletics and the General John W. Vessey, Jr. Veterans Resource Center are teaming up to collect Toys for Tots donations at this weekend's basketball games. The first 100 fans to bring a toy donation each day will receive a free Jimmy John's sandwich voucher redeemable at the local Jimmy John's on Snelling Ave. near campus.

Saturday's game will also be Day of Heroes, the award-winning athletics event that will be at a basketball game for the first time this year after being an annual football event. At halftime of the men's game, Concordia and the Vessey Veterans Resource Center will award an ROTC scholarship to Cadet Malcuit and honor the Disney Sports Spirit Award winner Hank Goff.

Additional plans are being finalized with local authorities which could include vehicles to display in and/or outside of the arena.

BROADCAST INFORMATION
This weekend's games will be available to watch online with play-by-play by JW Cox. The games will be produced by Stream Powered Productions through the Northern Sun's agreement with Stretch Internet. Live stats will accompany the broadcast, along with a standalone live stats option.

THE MATCH-UPS
Concordia enters Friday's matchup with a record of 28-13 against the Warriors in 41 previous meetings. The Golden Bears won 10 of the first 11 meetings in St. Paul between the two schools but it has been Winona State that has found success at Concordia recently with four wins in the last five trips.

The Golden Bears have had even more success against the Peacocks as they have won 19 of the 21 meetings in the all-time series and nine of the 10 meetings in St. Paul. CSP entered the last meeting last season with a six-game winning streak against UIU before Upper Iowa claimed their first win in St. Paul.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Concordia-St. Paul fell to Winona State 67-59 on Senior Night at the Gangelhoff Center last season.

Anika Whiting capped off Senior Night with a big performance as she finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

Despite Whiting's hot shooting night, the Golden Bears connected on 39.3% (22-56) from the field as all other Golden Bears combined to hit 12 of their 39 attempts. The Warriors had more success shooting as they hit on 45.5% (25-55) of their shots in the game. Winona State also held an advantage from deep as they hit 7-15 from three while CSP went 5-16.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
Concordia fought to erase a double-digit deficit in the second half but couldn't make it all the way back in an 88-79 loss to Upper Iowa at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
Anika Whiting scored 28 of her 30 points in the second half but it wasn't enough to complete the comeback.

The Peacocks got it done at the free throw line as they connected on 36-40 (90.0%) while the Golden Bears only took 10 trips to the charity stripe, making six of them.

Kyrah Fredenburg came off the bench to provide a spark for the Golden Bears as well as she finished with eight points and a career-high seven boards. Fredenburg has averaged 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two meeting with the Peacocks.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears split the opening weekend in the NSIC on the road.

Defense and bench play proved to be the difference in the 74-59 win over Wayne State as CSP held the Wildcats to 27.1% shooting and outscored them 37-14 in bench points.

Concordia saw a double digit first half lead disappear before erasing a double digit lead in the second half before getting shut out over the final 2:59 in a 76-69 loss at Augie.

Concordia took a four point lead with under 10 to play on Saturday, but NSU shut them down the rest of the way in a 54-49 loss.

Kionda Nicks filled the stat sheet on the weekend as she averaged 12.5 points, 7.5 boards, 4.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals.

NSIC LEADERS
With a solid start to the season, it has been a group effort with six different players registering in as top-10 performers in seven different statistical categories in the conference.

Perhaps most impressively, Kyrah Fredenburg has been a vacuum on the glass with a league-leading 10.3 boards per game. Incredibly, that mark is a full 1.2 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Offensively, Lauren Shifflett leads the way with 15.0 points per game, good for 10th in the NSIC,  while she has also connected on 1.9 threes per game, seventh most in the league.

Joining her on the offensive end, freshman Anna Schmitt also ranks 10th in the league in assists  with 3.3 per game through her first eight games.

Defensively, 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 seventh in steals with 2.3 per game.