ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (5-10, 1-8 NSIC) continues their five game homestand at the Gangelhoff Center this weekend as they play host to Minnesota Crookston (11-3, 8-2 NSIC) on Friday night and Bemidji State (6-8, 2-8 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
UMC SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears have dominated the all-time series against the Golden Eagles with 21 wins in 28 previous meetings. At the Gangelhoff Center CSP has been even better with 12 wins in 14 meetings there. From 2005-2013, Concordia won 13 in a row in the series, but UMC has claimed the last three meetings since then.
LAST MEETING VS UMC
Last year in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament, Concordia lost in heartbreaking fashion as Minnesota Crookston hit a pair of last second free throws to claim a 63-62 win.
The Golden Bears made a furious comeback down the stretch in the second but fell just short in a dramatic finish. After
Mishayla Jones gave the Golden Bears the lead with a three with 6.5 seconds left, Alexa Thielman was fouled and hit two free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Golden Eagles the win.
Lauren Shifflett was a huge spark off the bench for Concordia as she connected on 5-7 from beyond the arc to finish with a team-high 17 points in 30 minutes of action. Shifflett was joined in double figures with seniors
Anika Whiting (14 points) and
Ameshia Kearney (11 points).
BSU SERIES HISTORY
Heading into the 39th meeting of the series, Concordia holds a 27-11 record against Bemidji State. After BSU went 9-3 in the first 12 meetings, the Golden Bears have completely controlled the series with a mark of 24-2 since that point. In the 15 meetings in St. Paul it has been all Concordia as CSP has claimed 14 wins.
LAST MEETING VS BSU
Last season in Bemidji, hit an incredible 66.7% from the field in the first half en route to a 103-84 win over the Beavers.
The 103 points were the most in a game for Concordia since they scored 108 against U-Mary back on February 18th, 2011 and just the 12th time in the DII-Era they have broken 100 points in game. The 58.5% (38-65) shooting was also the best for CU since the team shot 61.2% at Bemidji State back on January 14th, 2012.
Kayla Miller finished with a career-best 18 points on 7-10 shooting and 3-5 from three in her second start as she also added seven boards and
Lauren Shifflett put in 19 points on 6-11 and 4-9 from beyond the arc along with three boards in the win.
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, Concordia opened up their homestand with a pair of losses to Augie and Wayne State.
After trailing by 11 at the half against Augie, CSP battled back to take the lead but they couldn't hold on in an 80-71 loss on Friday. On Saturday, the Golden Bears saw the Wildcats score 33 points in the fourth quarter to turn a four point CSP lead heading into the fourth into a 78-68 WSC win.
Leading the way over the weekend,
Caitlyn Russell averaged 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds after moving into the starting lineup while
Anna Schmitt added 14.0 points, 7.0 assists and 5.5 boards.
NSIC LEADERS
The Golden Bears have seen several different players shine in different areas this season with four different players registering in as top-10 performers in seven different statistical categories in the conference.
Perhaps most impressively,
Kyrah Fredenburg has been a force on the glass with a league-leading 9.6 boards per game, a mark that is 0.3 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.
Anna Schmitt ranks highly in multiple categories as she ranks sixth in assists per game (3.8) and 10th in scoring (14.5 PPG) and while also ranking 11th in steals per game (1.9). She leads all freshman in the league in each category.
In addition, the duo of
Mishayla Jones and
Caitlyn Russell rank near the top in the NSIC in blocks and steals, respectively. while Jones sits in seventh with 2.0 steals per game while Russell sits in ninth in blocks per game with 1.3. Russell also ranks sixth in field goal percentage at 51.6% while Jones ranks fourth with 3.9 assists per game.
