ST. PAUL, Minn. - The NSIC South fifth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (14-15) heads to Sioux Falls for the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament quarterfinals against NSIC South first-seeded #8 Winona State (28-2) on Sunday night.

WSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enters Saturday's matchup with a record of 28-15 against Winona State. The best stretch for the Golden Bears came from 2000-2011 when they won 19 of 20 during that span. WSU has responded with eight wins in the last 11 meetings since then, including the last four in a row.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on February 13th, the Warriors claimed the regular season sweep of the Golden Bears with a 73-60 win as they grabbed at least a share of their first NSIC Championship in program history.

A long scoreless drought in the first half proved to be the difference as the Warriors pulled away from the Golden Bears. Concordia hit just 31.4% (22-70) from the floor for the game, including just 15.8% (3-19) in the second quarter.

Anna Schmitt carried the scoring load for CSP as she scored 16 points on 5-16 shooting and 4-7 from deep while also chipping in four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals in 37 minuts.
 
Schmitt was joined in double figures by Kyrah Fredenburg and Caitlyn Russell, who each scored 10 points in the loss. Fredenburg added eight boards, two assists and two steals while Russell put up four rebounds.

LAST TIME OUT
On Wednesday night in St. Cloud, Concordia led nearly wire-to-wire as they picked up an 83-72 road win in the NSIC Tournament Opening Round.

Anna Schmitt helped lead a red-hot offensive attack with a game-high 26 points as she hit 9-13 from the floor with five assists and four rebounds in the win.
 
The team as a whole connected on an efficient 56.6% (30-53) from the floor, including 78.6% (11-14) in the fourth quarter. CSP also hit 7-20 (35.0%) from deep and 76.2% (16-21) from the free throw line.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Concordia holds a 24-8 record in 13 trips to the tournament. CSP has taken home the title four times ('05, '07, '08, '14) and has reached the tournament final seven times. The Golden Bears enter in with a 10-1 record in quarterfinal games in the tournament. In their first trip to the Pentagon back in 2013-14, CSP went 3-0 to claim the tournament title.

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 10.7 boards per game. Her mark is a full 2.0 rebounds higher than any other player in the NSIC.

Anna Schmitt ranks highly in a a few categories as she ranks fifth in scoring (15.1 PPG) and eighth in assists per game (3.7). She leads all freshman in the league in both categories.

In addition, Caitlyn Russell ranks third in field goal percentage (53.6%) and third in blocks (1.9) while Kionda Nicks ranks sixth in blocks (1.5) 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 13th in scoring (13.7).

Mishayla Jones also ranks fourth in assists per game (4.4).

SCHMITT EARNS CONFERENCE HONORS
Freshman guard Anna Schmitt earned NSIC Freshman of the Year honors to go along with being named All-NSIC Second Team and All-Freshman Team. She led all freshman in the league in scoring, assists per game and minutes per game in conference play.