Women's Basketball | 1.4.17

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (7-6, 3-4 NSIC) returns home after a two game road trip to host Wayne State and Augustana on Friday, Jan. 6 and Saturday, Jan. 7, respectively. Friday's game will tip-off at 6 pm and Saturday's game will begin at 4 pm. This is the second meeting of the season against WSC and AU for CSP.
 
Concordia's took to the road this past weekend to face off against two very solid opponents in then #25 ranked Northern State and MSU Moorhead who had been receiving votes for the D2 national rankings.
 
On Friday CSP fell to NSU by a score of 52-66 despite shooting 40.0 percent from the floor. However, the Golden Bears did struggle shooting from downtown going on 2-19 (10.5%) for the game. Anna Schmitt led CSP with 21 points, eight rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes of play.
 
On Saturday Concordia fell behind early to MSU Moorhead and could not recover falling by a score of 63-76. The Dragons had the hot hand as they shot 48.1 percent from the field and went 11-18 (61.1%) from 3-point range. The Golden Bears trailed by 14 with late in the second quarter but they would respond with a 13-3 run to close out the quarter and pull within four heading into halftime.
 
In the second half, MSUM would hold a double-digit lead nearly the rest of the game. CSP would get as close as eight with just over two minutes left but could Moorhead would quickly rebuild their lead and come away with the win. Concordia, however, did take care of the ball extremely well as they only committed a season-low eight turnovers in the loss.
 
Scouting WAYNE STATE (10-3, 5-3 NSIC)
WSC SERIES HISTORY
CSP is 19-18 all-time against WSC having won the first meeting at Wayne State earlier this season on Dec. 3rd. The Golden Bears have won six of the last nine matchups against Wayne State.
 
LAST MEETING VS WSC
Concordia and Wayne State met in early December this year in Wayne, Neb. and the Golden Bears came away with an 86-66 win. CSP would finish the game 61.1 percent (11-18) from beyond arc which ranks second all-time in program history for a single game. Four players drained a pair of triples and Mishayla Jones led the team with three triples made.
 
Leading the way for CSP was Anna Schmitt who scored a team-high 16 points while pulling in six rebounds, and dishing out six assists. Mishayla Jones tallied 15 points (3-5 3FG), grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists, and stole six passes which ties her career-high.
 
Lindsay Dorr notched 15 points off the bench and Lauren Shifflett rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points and four steals for the Golden Bears. The Golden Bears forced 18 Wildcat turnovers and converted for 26 points off turnovers. WSC only came away with nine points off turnovers. CSP also got 29 points from the bench in the win while Wayne State only recorded eight bench points.
 
Paige Ballinger led the way for WSC with a game-high 18 points and pulled in seven rebounds. Ana Martensen added 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
 
ABOUT THE WILDCATS
To begin the month of December the Wildcats dropped back-to-back games to Minnesota State and Concordia-St. Paul, but since then WSC has won five straight games.
 
Wayne State is currently fourth in the South Division standings but during their current five game winning streak, the Wildcats have defeated Sioux Falls and Augustana who are currently ranked second and third in the South Division standings, respectively.
 
The Wildcats are coming off a pair of eight point wins last weekend against Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State. 
 
WSC is led by Paige Ballinger who is averaging a team-best 13.8 points per game and has tallied 30 blocks on the season. Anna Martensen currently ranks second on the team in scoring coming in at 11.8 points per game. She also leads the team in rebounding at 7.0 per game. Maggie Schulte rounds out the double digit scorers at 11.0 points per game while leading the team in minutes played at 29.7.
 
Wayne State does go very deep into their bench as 11 players have played in at least 11 of the 13 games and nine players are averaging more than 10 minutes of playing time.
 
Scouting AUGUSTANA (11-4, 6-2 NSIC)
AU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears meet the Vikings for the 25th time on the court as AU holds a 14-10 record in the 24 previous meetings. The Vikings won the first matchup earlier this season in December. Augustana has won the last four meetings and CSP's last win against AU came on Dec. 6, 2014 by a score of 78-77.
 
LAST MEETING VS AU
Auggie topped Concordia by a score of 64-50 in Sioux Falls in the Golden Bears first NSIC game of the season.
 
Anna Schmitt scored a game-high 21 points and Lauren Shifflett who tallied 10 points in the loss. Kyrah Fredenburg pulled in a game-high 13 rebounds, 10 of which came in the first quarter and Caitlyn Russell pulled in 10 rebounds and added eight points off the bench.
 
In the second quarter, Concordia began with a 6-0 run to give them a 15-8 lead just two and half minutes in, but then Augustana responded with a 13-2 run to take a 23-17 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the quarter. Following the run by the Vikings, CSP then used a 9-2 run to close out the quarter and take a 26-25 lead heading into the locker room.
 
In the third quarter it was back and forth but Augustana outscored the Golden Bears 15-2 the remainder of the quarter to take a 46-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter. AU would end up outscoring CSP, 21-10 in the third quarter. The Vikings would reach their biggest lead of the game of 17 on two occasions in the final frame of play helping them come away with the win.
 
Augustana was led by Naomi Rust who scored a team-high 12 points, while Logan O'Farrell added 11 points and six rebounds and Shelby Selland rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points and pulled in a team-high eight rebounds and two blocks.
 
ABOUT THE VIKINGS
The Vikings were picked to finish third overall in the preseason polls and second in South Division standings.
 
After starting off the season 1-3, Augustana put together a nine game winning streak, but have dropped two of their last three games to Wayne State and Sioux Falls.
 
AU is propelled by a high power offense that currently ranks first in the NSIC as they average 78.7 points per game and have a margin of victory of 15.1 points which ranks second in the NSIC. The Vikings hold several top spots in the NSIC team rankings as they rank first in assists (19.3), turnover margin (7.7), and assists to turnover margin (1.4). Their defense has been also impressive as they rank first in steals with 11.7 per game and rank second in team rebounding at 41.5 per game.
 
Logan O'Farrell currently leads AU in scoring at 14.5 points per game, blocks with 20 and rebounds with 7.3. Naomi Rust is currently second on the team in scoring at 10.4 points per game. Lynsey Prosser adds 9.3 points per game and also leads the team in assists at 4.2 per game.
 
Key Stats
- Despite the two losses last weekend Anna Schmitt scored 21 points in each game while averaging 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in the two games.
- The eight turnovers committed against MSU Moorhead is a season-low.
- The Golden Bears have seen several different players shine in different areas this season with four different players registering in as top-10 performers in nine different statistical categories in the conference.
- Kyrah Fredenburg ranks third in rebounds per game at 9.8 while her 7.8 defensive rebounds per game ranks second
 - Anna Schmitt places in five categories as she ranks fifth in scoring (16.1 PPG), ninth in assists per game (3.8), seventh in field goal percentage (45.5%), 10th in free-throw percentage (80.3%) and third in minutes played per game (34.0).
- Caitlyn Russell's 1.2 blocks per game ranks 10th in the conference.
- Mishayla Jones ranks fifth in steals per game (2.3).