ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia women's basketball team (7-4, 3-2 NSIC) fell to rival Minnesota State (6-2, 3-2 NSIC) by a score of 86-68 on Saturday afternoon inside the Gangelhoff Center.
 
Lauren Shifflett led the way for the Golden Bears with a game-high 17 points which included four 3-pointers. Mishayla Jones added 12 points for CSP and three assists. Brianna Miller finished with nine points off the bench for Concordia on 4-5 shooting. Hanna Vidlund added eight points also off the bench while draining a pair of triples in the game.
 
The first quarter was a quarter of runs. After Minnesota State drained a pair of free-throws just six seconds into the game Concordia responded with an 8-0 run. The Mavericks then answered with a 6-0 run to tie the game. CSP would again counter with a 5-0 run and then MSU would close the quarter with a 4-0 run.
 
The Golden Bears would lead 13-12 after the first quarter of play. Both teams struggled shooting from the floor as both teams shot around 28 percent and CSP attempted 10 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of play.
 
Concordia opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run to build their lead up to six, Minnesota State would go on an offensive tear as they would outscore the bears 28-6 the rest of the quarter to take a 40-24 halftime lead.
 
The Mavericks shot an impressive 76.5 percent from the field in the second quarter. Clair Ziegler led a balanced offensive attack for MSU with nine first half points while Taylor Klug and Taylor Drost each added six points in the first half.
 
Concordia again struggled shooting from the floor in second quarter as they shot on 25 percent while going 1-11 from 3-point range. Lauren Shifflett tallied eight first half points for CSP and Mishayla Jones added six first half points.
 
Coming out of the halftime intermission, both teams each went 9-18 from the field in a high scoring third quarter. MSU would also go 7-8 from the free-throw line in the quarter to give them a 26-22 scoring advantage in the quarter and a 66-46 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
 
In the fourth quarter, the Golden Bears would continue to try and fight back and cut into MSU's lead but the hot shooting Mavericks were too much for CSP. Concordia did outscore Minnesota State 22-20 in the final quarter of play.
 
For the second straight quarter both teams made and attempted the same amount of field goals as both teams went 6-13 (46.2%) from the field. For the game though, Minnesota State would hold the advantage in field goal percentage as they shot 51.6 percent from the field while CSP shot 36.2 percent for the game.
 
MSU also held a great rebounding advantage as they outrebounded the Golden Bears 51-28.
 
The Mavericks had a very balanced offensive attack for the game as four players would finish in double digits and 11 players would score in the game. Leading the way was Claire Ziegler who scored a team-high 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, Taylor Klug added 14 points off the bench for MSU while Britney Scherber and Monica Muth rounded out the double digit scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively.  Rachel Shumski also had a very productive game as she tallied nine points, 12 rebounds and a team-high four assists.
 
Concordia returns to action in two weeks as they travel to #18 Northern State on Friday Dec. 30 for a 6 pm start and then travel to MSU Moorhead on Saturday Dec. 31 for a 4 pm tip-off.