CROOKSTON, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (15-7, 11-5 NSIC) extended its winning streak to eight in a high scoring road win, 90-84 at Minnesota Crookston (6-14, 6-10 NSIC) on Saturday evening at Lysaker Gymnasium.

Owners of the longest winning streak in the Northern Sun by a four game margin, Concordia returns home next Friday and Saturday for NSIC North-South play. Concordia hosts St. Cloud State on Friday, February 3 at 6 p.m. and Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 4 p.m. for Golden Bear Bash (alumni and their family receive free admission, food and beverages following a 2 p.m. alumni game!).

Sophomore Anna Schmitt scored a career-high and team-season high 32 points, edging out teammate Mishayla Jones who scored 31 the previous night in a road win at Bemidji State.

The winning streak is Concordia's longest since the nine game winning streak that brought the 2013-14 Golden Bears to the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals (Elite Eight) and has vaulted the team from a 3-5 start in league play all the way to third place in the NSIC South Division standings and fourth in the overall conference.

Schmitt has been on fire during the winning streak, averaging 22.1 points per game to increase her season average to 17.7. In that stretch, Schmitt is shooting 47.6 percent (20-42) from three, 51.5 percent (51-99) from the field and 82.1 percent (55-67) from the stripe.

Tonight, Schmitt couldn't be contained as she connected on 12-of-18 from the field and 5-of-9 from deep while nabbing five steals and producing a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio with five rebounds and a block.

It was her 10th 20-point outburst of the season.

Meanwhile, for the fourth straight game senior center Caitlyn Russell was a force inside. She had 23 points, six rebounds and a blocked shot and is averaging 20.8 points over the last four games with three straight 20-plus point efforts and two double-doubles. She's raised her scoring average over two points per game in the process.

During the winning streak, Russell is averaging 16.4 points and 8.0 rebounds with 2.6 blocks per game.

Predictably, the Golden Eagles tried to slow down Shay Jones, who was coming off a 31-point night in Bemidji just 22 hours earlier. While UMC did hold her to 5-of-15 shooting, Jones still scored 14 points but was effective at finding teammates with an 8-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio as CSP dished out 19 team assists in the game.

Jones has also raised her game during the past eight games, averaging 13.8 points while distributing 4.5 assists per outing and collecting nearly two steals per game.

The trio has averaged a combined 17.6 free throw attempts per game, where they've collectively made 80.9 percent (114-141), using a combination of post scoring (Russell) three-point shooting (Schmitt) and slashing (Schmitt & Jones).

Adding muscle underneath is junior Kyrah Fredenberg who bullied UMC for 12 rebounds including five on the offensive glass to help CSP to a 16-11 second chance points margin. She added four assists, a block, a steal and four points. During CSP's win streak, she's averaged a robust 11.5 rebounds and is averaging 10.4 per game on the year.

Her 8.0 rebounds per game in her 75 games in three seasons as a Golden Bear is tops in Concordia's DII-era (1999-present), edging head coach Amanda Johnson (Behnke) who had 7.7 in 94 games in her three years. Fredenburg ranks fifth in rebounding average all-time at CSP.

Concordia was able to score 90 points tonight despite sub-50 percent shooting (34-72, 47.2%) as the team took care of the ball with just eight turnovers while forcing 16.

While doubling up UMC in turnovers, CSP used that to double up the Golden Eagles in points off turnovers as well, to a 24-12 margin, which combined with the 16-11 edge in second chance scoring proved to be major road advantages.

UMC was led by Alison Hughes' 30 points, shooting 7-of-12 from the field, 6-of-7 from three and 10-of-10 at the line.

The game was closely played, featuring five ties and nine lead changes with CSP's largest lead at nine points, overcoming an 11-point first quarter deficit in the opening minutes as UMC sprinted out to leads of 10-0, 13-2 and 15-4.

Concordia closed out the quarter strong, outscoring UMC 17-5 to take its first lead, 21-20 on a Schmitt three-pointer. That was part of a 22-7 overall run to take a 27-22 early in the second quarter.

UMC wouldn't lead again in the first half as Concordia went into the break ahead 41-36.

In the third, the Golden Bears opened up its largest lead of the night at nine, 45-36 when Jones made a layup in the paint before UMC rattled off a 13-2 run to reclaim the lead for the first time since the first quarter.

The margin remained within three for the rest of a third quarter that featured four ties and five lead changes.

Each team opened up four point leads in the first half of the fourth quarter, UMC at 68-64 with 7:12 to play and CSP taking it back 74-70 with 5:08 left.

But it was Concordia who would hold the momentum during a 15-2 run that opened the lead back up to nine for the second time at 79-70 with under four minutes to go on a Hanna Vidlund three-pointer. Vidlund added another dagger from deep with under two minutes to play to push it back to nine again, 84-75.

UMC was able to trim the margin to a one possession game with 40 seconds remaining but Kayla Miller made 1-of-2 at the line as the Golden Eagles never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead down the stretch.