ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia women's basketball team (7-3, 3-1 NSIC) upset #12 Winona State (9-2, 4-1 NSIC) by a score of 66-59 on Saturday evening inside the Gangelhoff Center.
 
Four players reached double figures as Caitlyn Russell led the way off the bench with 14 points and four rebounds. Anna Schmitt finished with 12 points while Kyrah Fredenburg and Lauren Shifflett scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Fredenburg also finished with a game-high 14 rebounds.
 
Winona State got off to a quick start as they jumped out to 7-0 lead just over a minute and a half into the contest. The Concordia offense would pick up though as they would go on to outscore the Warriors 20-4 the remainder of the quarter.
 
The Golden Bears drained three triples in the first quarter to help with their scoring run to give them a 20-11 lead at the end of the quarter.
 
In the second quarter, CSP continued to build upon their lead that would eventually reach 11 at the 6:39 mark. WSU would cut the lead to six but again the Concordia offense would heat up as they build a 15 point lead at the 3:08 mark off a 9-0 run.
 
Concordia would hold their double-digit lead the remainder of half and would take a 37-26 lead going into the locker room.
 
Russell would score 10 of her 14 points in the first half, while Fredenburg added nine first half points, all off 3-pointers, for CSP.
 
To start the third quarter, the Golden Bears would continue to hold a lead but Winona State would slowly chip away and tie the game with 1:05 left in the quarter. Four made free-throws by CSP gave them a three point heading into the final quarter of play.
 
In the fourth quarter, Concordia would build their lead to as much as seven and they would never trail at any point in the entire quarter and second half. The Warriors would get as close as one on couple occasions but could never regain the early first quarter lead they had at the beginning of the game.
 
The Golden Bears would escape with a big 66-59 NSIC win and went 2-0 over the weekend series.
 
Schmitt scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half including a pair of 3-pointers. Shifflett added eight second half points for Concordia.
 
CSP won the rebounding battle by a 44-39 margin and converted on 13 second chance points compared to Winona's eight second chance points.
 
Winona State was led by Liz Evenocheck with a game-high 17 points. Tara Roelofs added 14 points and Hannah McGlone chipped in with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Concordia returns to action next Saturday, Dec. 17 as they host Minnesota State Mankato at 2 pm.