ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team (8-7, 4-5 NSIC) snapped their four game losing streak with an 83-77 home win over Augustana (12-5, 7-3 NSIC) on Saturday evening.
"I am very proud of the girls' effort tonight. We had a good shoot around and the girls came back today focused and ready to go. We knew this was a big game for us and how important it was to finish this weekend with a win on our home court. Everyone knew their role and executed it tonight," head coach
Amanda Johnson said following the win.
Anna Schmitt led the way for CSP as she scored a game-high 26 points, just three points shy of her career-high. She also added seven rebounds and four assists.
Caitlyn Russell was dominant on the low post as she finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.
Lauren Shifflett rounded out the double-digit scorers with 17 points while going 5-10 from beyond the arc.
The Golden Bears finished the game shooting 43.1% (28-65) from the floor and 89.5% (17-19) from the free-throw line. The Vikings, only shot 33.3% (24-72) and went 81.0% (17-21) from the free-throw line.
Kyrah Fredenburg pulled in a game-high 17 rebounds which was four shy of her career-high. Concordia controlled the boards pulling a total of 51 compared to 39 rebounds by Augustana.
Sydney Rome led the Vikings with 25 points on 7-10 shooting including 5-7 from beyond the arc. She also pulled in a team-high seven rebounds. Shelby Selland added 15 points and Presley O'Farrell finished with 10 for Augustana.
After scoring only 15 combined points in the first and fourth quarters the previous night, the Golden Bears poured in 19 first quarter points against Augustana and held a one point advantage at the end of the first quarter.
CSP shot 41.2 percent from the floor and six different players found the scoring column in the quarter. AU was led by Sydney Rome who scored 10 first quarter points going a perfect 3-3 from the field, including 2-2 from beyond the arc.
Concordia's offense and defense continued to click in the second quarter as they shot 52.9 percent from the field and held Auggie to only 27.8 percent shooting. However, the Vikings would score 22 points in the second quarter and take a 40-39 point lead into the locker room.
AU was able to take a slight lead into halftime thanks to the continued hot shooting of Sydney Rome as she finished with 20 first half points and was a perfect 6-6 from the field, including 4-4 from downtown. The Vikings also went 9-11 from the free-throw line in the quarter and CSP did not attempt a single free-throw in the second quarter.
Coming out of the halftime break, Augustana would get the first basket of the half and build their lead up to three, but then it was the
Lauren Shifflett caught fire and drilled back-to-back 3-pointers giving CSP the lead which they would never relinquish the rest of the game.
Shifflett would drain a total of four 3-pointers in the third quarter while
Caitlyn Russell scored seven third quarter points giving CSP a 64-56 lead heading into the final quarter of play. Concordia would outscore AU 25-16 in the quarter.
In the final 10 minutes of play, Auggie continued to fight back and would pull within one at the 7:18 mark. After a few scoreless possessions by each team
Anna Schmitt would put together her own 6-0 run with a 3-pointer and then an and-one on the following possession would build the CSP lead up to seven.
From the moment the Vikings would not closer than four for the remainder of the game and some solid free-throw shooting down the line by CSP would seal the 83-77 victory for the Golden Bears.
Prior to the win, CSP was 0-4 against the Vikings in the last four meetings.
Concordia is back in action on Tuesday, January 10 as they travel to Minnesota State. Tip-off is set for 6 pm.
