ST. PAUL, Minn. - The NSIC South fifth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (13-15) will open up play in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament against NSIC North fourth-seeded St. Cloud State (13-13) on Wednesday night.

SCSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears hold a 13-16 record against St. Cloud State heading into the 30th meeting between the two schools. The Golden Bears have been more successful recently, however, as they have won seven of the past 10 meetings. CSP had won four in a heading into this season's loss in St. Cloud.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
Back on January 3rd, the Golden Bears couldn't slow down the red-hot St. Cloud Huskies

The Huskies hit 49.2% from the floor, 45.0% from three and were perfect from the line on the afternoon.

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.

LAST TIME OUT
Over the weekend, Concordia closed out the regular season with a split against Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls.

On Friday, Concordia hit 62.1% in the first half as they cruised to a 68-59 victory on Friday night over the Mustangs.

On Saturday, the Golden Bears struggled to 34.5% from the floor in the 64-49 loss to USF on Saturday.

Mishayla Jones had a huge weekend as she averaged 21.0 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in a full 40.0 minutes of action.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Concordia has a 23-8 record in 12 previous trips to the tournament. CSP has taken home the title four times ('05, '07, '08, '14) and has reached the tournament final seven times. Concordia holds a 10-2 record in first round games in the tournament. In first round road games, the Golden Bears hold a record of 1-1.

LASY YEAR IN THE TOURNAMENT
Last season, CSP dropped their first round game in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament in heartbreaking fashion, losing to Minnesota Crookston 63-62 on Wednesday night on a pair of last second free throws.

The Golden Bears made a furious comeback down the stretch in the second but fell just short in a dramatic finish. After Mishayla Jones gave the Golden Bears the lead with a three with 6.5 seconds left, Alexa Thielman was fouled and hit two free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Golden Eagles the win.
 
The Golden Eagles held a 38-30 advantage on the glass. In addition, Minnesota Crookston held a 24-12 advantage in paint scoring.

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

Kyrah Fredenburg leads the way with a league-leading 10.6 boards per game. Her mark is a full 1.9 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Anna Schmitt ranks highly in a a few categories as she ranks seventh in scoring (14.7 PPG) and eighth in assists per game (3.6). She leads all freshman in the league in both categories.

In addition, Caitlyn Russell ranks third in field goal percentage (52.4%) and fourth in blocks (1.8) while Kionda Nicks ranks ninth in blocks (1.3) as well.

Lauren Shifflett also ranks near the top-10 in a pair of categories as  she ranks fifth in three made per game (2.2) and 11th in scoring (14.2).

Mishayla Jones also ranks fifth in assists per game (4.1).