ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia University women's basketball team (14-12, 10-10 NSIC) dropped their final regular season home clash to Winona State (18-6, 14-6 NSIC) by a score of 67-59 at the Gangelhoff Center on Saturday night.
Anika Whiting capped off Senior Night with her second straight big performance as she finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
Whiting finished the weekend with an average of 27.0 points and 10.5 rebounds in the two games after connecting on 10-17 from the floor and 3-3 from the free throw line while playing all 40 minutes on the night.
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 CU went 5-16.
Rebounding also went in favor of WSU with a margin of 36-29. Concordia, however, finished with an advantage in the paint as they outscored the Warriors down low 26-18.
Ameshia Kearney joined Whiting in double figures in senior night as she finished with 16 points on 5-12 shooting and 4-4 from the line as she added four assists and three rebounds in 38 minutes.
For the Warriors, four of their five starters scored in double figures in a balanced offensive attack. Alexis Foley led the team with 16 points while Tara Roelofs added 14, Connor Nagle added 13 and Hannah McGlone added 12 in the win.
Concordia fell behind early as the Warriors controlled play in the early going before a 10-2 run in favor of CU gave them their first advantage at 17-13 with 6:43 to go in the half. Points were hard to come by in the opening half as the pace was dictated by a slow, methodical WSU offense.
Down the stretch of the first half, neither team was able to gain control with two ties and three lead changes in the final few minutes before the break. Winona grabbed the final of those three lead changes on a Kayla Timmerman layup with 26 seconds to go to give WSU a 25-24 advantage headed into the half.
The jostling for the lead continued early in the second half with three ties and six lead changes in the first 15 minutes of the half. Winona State built their largest lead to that point with the first four points of the second half only to see Concordia take the lead with the next six points.
Concordia matched their largest lead of the game at the 11:24 mark and again at 10:52 but were unable to hang on over the final 10 minutes. Winona State regained the lead for good on a Roelofs jumper at 54-52 with 5:29 to play before they extended their lead to nine at 61-52 to cap an 11-0 run.
The Golden Bears pulled as close as four with 52 seconds left following two free throws from Kearney but they wouldn't score again in a 67-59 loss.
Concordia closes out the regular season this weekend as they travel to Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls.
