ABERDEEN, S.D. – Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball (7-5, 3-3 NSIC) returned to action on Friday night but fell to #25 Northern State (9-2, 5-2 NSIC) by a score of 52-66 on the road.
 
Anna Schmitt led CSP with 21 points, eight rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes of play. Mishayla Jones scored eight points while Brianna Miller and Caitlyn Russell each tallied six points for Concordia. Russell also added six rebounds in the loss.
 
Northern State scored first and Concordia responded with a basket on their first offensive possession, but then NSU put together a 7-0 run and never looked back. Concordia would get as close as four with just over a minute left in the first quarter, but would trail by seven after the first 10 minutes of play.
 
In the second quarter, the Golden Bears offense started to pick up as they outscored Northern State 19-16 to pull within four at the halftime intermission. Schmitt scored eight points in the second quarter and CSP would get as close as two points on two occasions.
 
Both teams shot really well from the floor in the first half as CSP shot 48.1 percent and NSU shot 43.3 percent in the first 20 minutes of play. Concordia, however, struggled from 3-point land as they went 2-8 while Northern State went 4-8 from distance.
 
Coming out of the halftime break, the Golden Bears continued to try and fight back, but NSU continued to apply defensive pressure forcing five Concordia turnovers in the third quarter. The Wolves would get their first double-digit lead at the 5:12 mark and would close out the quarter with a 48-38 lead.
 
In the final quarter of play, CSP would slowly chip away at the NSU lead and would get as close as seven after a layup by Schmitt with 3:45 left in the game. Again, Northern State would respond with a 9-0 run to give them their biggest lead of the game of 16 with 1:40 left in the game and would go on to win by a final score of 66-52.
 
The Golden Bears did finish the game shooting 40.0 percent from the field but they struggled from downtown going 2-19 (10.5%) for the game. Concordia's bench did outscore NSU's bench by 13-6 margin.
 
Four players reached double figures for the Wolves led by Miranda Ristau with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Paige Waytashek added 15 points for NSU while Jill Conrad and Bethan Crosswait scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.
 
CSP is now 15-20 all-time against Northern State.
 
The Golden Bears return to action tomorrow as they continue to NSIC play at MSU Moorhead. Game time is set for 4 pm.