Women's Basketball | 1.27.16

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (9-11, 5-9 NSIC) returns home to face a pair of NSIC North foes as they host MSU Moorhead (13-4, 10-4 NSIC) on Friday and Northern State (15-4, 11-3 NSIC) on Saturday.

GOLDEN BEAR BASH
Join Concordia-St. Paul's office of alumni relations and the athletics department this Friday night for the Golden Bear Bash at Gangelhoff Center during the women's (6 p.m.) and men's (8 p.m.) doubleheader against MSU Moorhead.

Game tickets and admission to the event are free for alumni and their families. Walk-ins are welcome, but pre-registration is preferred and can be done online!

Spend time with former classmates, watch the Golden Bear women try to continue a hot streak with wins in four of their last five games under alumna Amanda Behnke as head coach at 6 p.m.

The Golden Bear Bash event will be hosted in the Sandberg Room and Hall of Fame Room on the second floor of Gangelhoff Center, with doors to the alumni event opening at 6:30 p.m. (approximately women's halftime) and ending at 9 p.m. in the second half of the men's game. The event features free apps and drinks, along with a Comet Kid Zone with a movie, coloring and games - the entire family is welcome!

BOWLING FOR BEARS
Concordia-St. Paul's signature winter fundraising event is back this year as Bowling for Bears 2016 will be held at Midway Pro Bowl on January 30th at 8:30 p.m. with a cost of just $25 per person. Register here!

One of Concordia's most popular fundraising events, Bowling for Bears is held in a laid back atmosphere at Midway Pro Bowl at Midway Shopping Center near campus on University Ave. The event features four person teams using the team average from three games of bowling. This marks the second consecutive year that the event will be held at the spacious Midway Pro Bowl, which is just minutes away from campus.

MSUM SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Friday's matchup with MSU Moorhead with a record of 23-12 in the 35 previous meetings. CSP controlled the series from 2006-11 as they won 10 of the 12 meetings during that span, but the Dragons have turned the tables since then with three wins in the past four contests. CSP holds a 12-5 record at home against MSUM.

LAST MEETING VS MSUM
Last year, CSP was held to a season-low 51 points in a 63-51 loss at Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse.

The Golden Bears were limited to just 30.4% (17-56) for the game as they hit just 19.0% (4-21) from beyond the arc. CSP held their own on the defensive end as they also kept the Dragons to just 31.4% (16-51) shooting for the game.

Two major deciding factors came at the free throw line and on the glass for MSU Moorhead. MSUM hit 26-27 from the foul line, including hitting their first 22 in a row, and held a large 46-31 advantage on the glass as they picked up 11 offensive boards compared to six for CSP.

Anika Whiting proved to be the lone bright spot on the offensive end as she was an efficient 5-9 from the floor and 9-10 from the free throw line to finish with a game-high 19 points and five rebounds in 28 minutes for the Golden Bears.
 
NSU SERIES HISTORY
Concordia and Northern State have met 33 times in the all-time series as the Golden Bears enter into this weekend's matchup with a record of 14-19. The series has been basically even since NSU grabbed the first fix meetings of the series, including the two teams splitting the last four meetings. CSP is 9-6 all-time in St. Paul against the Wolves.

LAST MEETING VS NSU
Last season, the Golden Bears were limited on the offensive end as they dropped a tough game by a score of 54-49 to then-#17 Northern State at Wachs Arena.

The Golden Bears' offense was held to a season-low in points as they were only able to muster 49 points in the slow paced contest. CSP was held to 34.6% (19-53) from the floor and 23.5% (4-17) from beyond the arc on the night.

Concordia's defense kept them in the game as they held the Wolves to just 34.8% (16-46) from the field while taking control on the glass with a 38-32 advantage and a14-8 advantage in offensive rebounds.

Anika Whiting led the Golden Bears in the scoring column as she finished with 14 points and four rebounds on 6-14 from the field while Ameshia Kearney and Lauren Shifflett joined Whiting in double figures as they each added 10 points on 4-7 shooting.

LAST TIME OUT
Over the weekend, Concordia fell to Sioux Falls 69-64 before handing SMSU a 78-70 loss on the road.

Including last Tuesday's win over Minnesota State, four of CSP's five starters averaged double figures for the week with Lauren Shifflett (17.0), Anna Schmitt (14.0), Caitlyn Russell (12.7) and Mishayla Jones (12.0) all reached that mark while Kyrah Fredenburg averaged 9.3 points and 11.7 boards.

Shifflett hit 11 threes, including six in the win over SMSU, for the week as she connected on 54.5% of her shots from the floor and 55.0% from beyond the arc in the three games.

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

Kyrah Fredenburg leads the way with a league-leading 10.8 boards per game. Her mark is incredibly 1.9 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Anna Schmitt ranks highly in multiple categories as she ranks sixth in scoring (15.6 PPG), seventh in assists per game (3.8), 13th in field goal percentage (48.2%) and and while also ranking 15th in steals per game (1.7). She leads all freshman in the league in each category.

Mishayla Jones and Lauren Shifflett both rank in the top-10 in a pair of categories as Jones sits in fifth in both assists per game (4.0) and steals per game (2.1) while Shifflett ranks fifth in three made per game (2.2) and 10th in scoring (14.4).

In addition, Caitlyn Russell ranks fifth in blocked shots (1.7) and Kionda Nicks ranks ninth in the same category (1.3).