ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team (5-8, 1-6 NSIC) couldn't slow down the red-hot St. Cloud Huskies (8-4, 7-1 NSIC) on Sunday afternoon. The Huskies hit 49.2% from the floor, 45.0% from three and were perfect from the line on the afternoon.
St. Cloud State knocked down 32-65 shots, 9-20 threes and all 11 free throw attempts to hold onto their grip of the top spot in the NSIC North Division early in the league slate. The Golden Bears weren't far behind from the floor as they connected on 45.2% (28-62) as they also hit 88.2% (15-17) from the line, but they could only knock down 20.0% (3-15) from deep in the loss.
The Huskies also won the rebounding battle as they out-boarded CSP 39-29, including an 18-14 edge on the offensive glass.
Caitlyn Russell provided a real bright spot for Concordia as she matched her career-best with 23 points on an efficient 10-15 from the field while also adding seven boards in 25 minutes off the bench. She finished with 23 of the 25 bench points for the squad on the day.
Three starters registered in with double figures scoring as Schmitt stayed hot with 16 points while
Mishayla Jones contributed 12 points and
Lauren Shifflett added 10. Schmitt was 6-12 shooting and Jones hit 4-6 to go along with nine assists.
The Huskies got a big day from Karissa LeCaptain as she led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds while Betsy MacDonald, Chelsea Nooker, Andrea Thomas and Lauren Novak finished with 19, 16, 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Golden Bears held off the Huskies for much of the opening quarter as the game featured four ties but no leads for SCSU until the closing moments of the first. Concordia built some early momentum with five straight points to go up 11-6 just over six minutes in and they matched that lead a few minutes later at 13-8 before St. Cloud State bounced back. The Huskies closed out the period on an 8-2 run in the final minute of action in the quarter as they took their first lead at 16-15 heading into the second.
After Schmitt notched a bucket to open the second quarter and put CSP back in front, SCSU took control with a 10-4 run to build a 26-21 advantage. Concordia closed the gap back to one with the next four in a row but the Huskies once again had an answer with 10 of the next 13 points to take their largest lead of the half at 36-28 with 2:33 to go before the break. The Golden Bears knocked down a pair of shots and held St. Cloud State off the board the rest of the way as they went into the half trailing 36-32.
Concordia couldn't carry that momentum into the third quarter as they missed 10 of their first 12 shots while SCSU hit eight of their first 15 to grow the margin all the way to 16 at 54-38 just over six minutes in. As has been the case all season, the Golden Bears fought hard to get back in it with a 5-0 run to close the gap to 11. After four of the next six points went in favor of the Huskies, CSP strung together five in a row again to pull within single digits at 58-50 at the end of the quarter.
The lead quickly returned to double digits in the fourth and eventually matched the largest lead of the day at 71-55 as SCSU held a 16 point lead with 5:54 left on the clock. Once again, the Golden Bears chipped away at the lead with a 10-3 run to bring it back to nine at 74-65 just over two minutes later. Concordia cut it back to eight at 82-74 with a minute remaining but the comeback attempt ran out of time as St. Cloud State held CSP scoreless the rest of the way to bring it to an 84-74 final.
