ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team (7-7, 3-5 NSIC) dropped their fourth consecutive game in a 52-66 loss to Wayne State (11-3, 6-3 NSIC) inside the Gangelhoff Center on Friday night.

CSP trailed by only six entering the final quarter of play but struggled greatly in the fourth quarter shooting 8.3 percent from the floor and only scoring six points in the final 10 minutes of play.

The Golden Bears finished the game shooting 32.2% (19-59) from the floor. The Wildcats, only shot 39.3% (22-56) from the floor but went 18-25 from the free-throw for the game.

Caitlyn Russell led the way for CSP as she scored a game-high 16 points and added four blocks. Mishayla Jones finished with 11 points and a team-high six assists. Kayla Miller added seven points off the bench for Concordia while going 2-4 from beyond the arc.

Maggie Schulte recorded a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead WSC in the win. Paige Ballinger added 13 points for the Wildcats, all of which came in the second half. Anna Martensen finished with nine and Evelyn Knox also finished with nine points off the bench.

A high scoring first quarter gave Wayne State the early advantage in the game as they outscored CSP 20-7 in the opening frame. The Wildcats would outscore Concordia 16-0 in the last 5:38 of the quarter.

The Golden Bears had a rough shooting first 10 minutes of play as they only shot 13.3 percent from the floor. WSC only shot 37.5 percent in the first quarter but went 7-8 from the free-throw line to help build their lead.

Maggie Schulte tallied eight points in the first quarter for Wayne State while Mishayla Jones notched five first quarter points for CSP.

Concordia's offense would pick up in the second quarter of play as they shot 52.9 percent from the floor and held WSC to 36.4 percent shooting. The Golden Bears would outscore the Wildcats 20-14 in the quarter and would go into the break trailing by seven. CSP dominated in the paint during the second quarter as they held a 14-4 points in the paint advantage.

The Golden Bears would get as close as four with just under four minutes remaining in the quarter, but Wayne State would respond the following possession with a triple to put their lead back to seven.

Caitlyn Russell would lead CSP with 10 first half points, eight of which came in the second quarter while Jones added eight first half points.

Coming out of the halftime break the Golden Bears began to slowly chip away at the Wildcat lead and would eventually tie the game at 43 with 3:14 left in the third quarter thanks to a 3-pointer by Hanna Vidlund.

On the next possession Wayne State would answer with a 3-pointer of their own to regain the lead. About a minute later a 3-pointer by Kayla Miller would tie the game again, but yet again Wayne State would put together a 6-0 run to close out the quarter and take a 46-52 lead heading into the final quarter of play.

The Wildcats would outscore CSP 14-6 in the final quarter of play and used a pair of 6-0 runs in the quarter to help pull away and come out with the final 66-52 win.

Concordia is in action again tomorrow as they host Augustana at 4 pm inside the Gangelhoff Center.