Women's Basketball | 1.6.16

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (5-8, 1-6 NSIC) returns home to play host to Augustana (11-3, 5-3 NSIC) and Wayne State (7-6, 4-4 NSIC) this weekend at the Gangelhoff Center.

AUGIE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Vikings have met 22 times in the series history with CSP holding a 10-12 record in those meetings. At the Gangelhoff Center, Concordia has dominated against Augie with six wins in seven meetings there. The Golden Bears held a three-game winning streak in the series heading into the last meeting last year until Augustana broke the streak with two wins in a row.

LAST MEETING VS AUGIE
Back on December 5th, the Vikings held the Golden Bears scoreless over the final 2:29 to hand Concordia a 76-69 loss.

After leading by as many as 11 in the first half, Concordia saw Augie build a double digit lead of their own in the second half before evening it up late, but a dry spell in the closing minutes proved to be the difference in a back-and-forth game. It was a tale of two halves for the Golden Bears as they connected on an impressive 56.7% (17-30) from the floor in the first half before shooting just 29.0% (9-31) after the break.

Lauren Shifflett paced the team with 15 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Kionda Nicks scored in double figures for the second night in a row and fourth time in six games as she finished with 12 points, seven boards and a pair of assists.
 
WSC SERIES HISTORY
Concordia holds a slim 18-17 advantage against Wayne State heading into the 36th meeting between the two schools. After losing six of the first seven meetings, CSP has taken over in the series with 17 wins in the last 28 meetings. The Golden Bears have gone 10-7 in meetings in St. Paul and have won five of the last seven overall.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
Back on December 4th, the Golden Bears opened up NSIC play with an impressive 74-59 road win at Wayne State.

Concordia's defense was stifling as their pressure gave Wayne State trouble and the Golden Bear offense was nearly as effective as the defense as the team put up a solid performance all-around. While the Wildcats hit just 27.1% (19-70) of their shots and 26.7% (4-15) of their threes, CSP knocked down 43.9% (29-66) from the floor and 30.8% (4-13) from beyond the arc.
Off the bench, Anna Schmitt and Caitlyn Russell were electric as Schmitt led all scorers with 19 points on 7-11 shooting to go along with four boards and four assists while Russell put up 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks while hitting 6-11 from the floor.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia was swept by Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State on the road last weekend.

The Golden Bears played the Bulldogs even through three of the four quarters but were outscored 24-14 in the third in a 74-64 loss on Saturday. CSP's comeback attempt fell short as they cut a 16-point fourth quarter deficit to single digits in an 84-74 loss to SCSU on Sunday.

Concordia allowed opponents to shoot 49.2% from the floor and 41.0% from beyond the arc in the two games. Over the weekend, Anna Schmitt surpassed the 20-point plateau for the fourth time on the year and third time in four games with 22 points on Saturday before following it up with 16 points on Sunday.

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

Perhaps most impressively, Kyrah Fredenburg has been a vacuum on the glass with a league-leading 9.8 boards per game, a mark that is 0.8 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Anna Schmitt ranks highly in multiple categories as she ranks sixth in field goal percentage (50.6%), eighth in scoring (14.5 PPG) and 10th in assists per game (3.4) 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 Caitlyn Russell and Mishayla Jones rank near the top in the NSIC in blocks and steals, respectively. Russell sits in eighth in blocks per game with 1.4 while Jones sits in ninth with 1.9 steals per game. Jones also ranks seventh with 3.8 assists per game.

Lauren Shifflett also ranks ninth in threes mades per game (1.8).