ST. PAUL, Minn. -  The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (1-1) will have their home-opener on November 16^th when they take on Northern Michigan (1-1) at 7 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center. This is the first of six straight home games for the Golden Bears.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Bears are coming off their opening weekend of play, where they went 1-1, falling to Pittsburg State, but defeating #3 Harding the following day. Junior guard Anna Schmitt scored her 1,000 career point in the first half against Pittsburg State, and went on to score 25 total points that game.  In the 78-67 win over #3 Harding, the Bears were impressive in every offensive category, shooting 49% from the field, 50% from three, and 73.9% from the line. After Harding scored the first two points of the night, CSP went on an 11 point run and forced Harding to take a timeout. The Bears never looked back, holding onto the lead for the rest of the game going on to win their first of the season.
 
NORTHERN MICHIGAN SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears are 4-2 in their series history against Northern Michigan and have won the past three contests. Two of these six matchups needed overtime to decide a winner, with CSP going 1-1 in 45 minute games against the Wildcats. Four of the six times that these teams have met, the games have been decided by ten points or less; one of the two exceptions came in 2013 when the Bears won by 15. The last time that Northern Michigan defeated the Bears was in 2010, when they won 72-68 in overtime.
 
LAST MEETING VS NORTHERN MICHIGAN
The 2016 matchup was also a close one. Concordia was trailing 12-8 after the first quarter, but outscored the Wildcats 21-13 in the second quarter to lead 29-25 at the half. Scoring went back-and-forth early in the third quarter, until the Bears took back the lead after a three-pointer from Kayla Miller with seven minutes left in the quarter. The Bears held on to the lead for the rest of the game, going on to win 68-61. Junior Lindsay Dorr was the leading scorer for the Bears, scoring a career-high 24 points against the Wildcats. Schmitt scored 18 and junior Hanna Vidlund added 12. The bench was especially active in this game, scoring 38 of the team's 68 points.
 
  ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Northern Michigan is 1-1 on the year with a 59-53 season-opening win over Indianapolis and an 82-59 loss against Lewis. The team returns thirteen from last season's roster and adds four new freshmen to the mix. Despite having thirteen returning, the squad is overall young, with no seniors on the roster. They went 17-12 last season, losing in the GLIAC Tournament Quarterfinals to Saginaw Valley.
 
Their leading scorer, junior guard Darby Youngstrom, is averaging 14.0 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.0 steal per game. Teammate Jessica Shultz is right behind her with 13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game. The Wildcats also have seven other players who are averaging between 3.0 and 6.0 points per game. The team currently averages 59.0 points a game, while shooting 37.7% from the field, 21.6% from three, and 85.7% from the line.
 
KEY STATS
-Junior guard Anna Schmitt hit her 1,000 career-point in the first game of her junior season, and now has 1,042 points, which puts her as the 21^st leading scorer in Concordia history. So far, she is averaging 26.0 points per game, which leads the conference.
-Senior Kyrah Fredenburg is leading the Bears in rebounding, averaging 11.0 per game, which is the second highest in the conference. Fredenburg's 664 career rebounds puts her seventh in the Concordia record book.
-Junior Hanna Vidlund scored a career-high 17 points against #3 Harding on Saturday evening.
-Freshman Ellie Gess opened her collegiate career with nine points against Pittsburg State and 11 points against #3 Harding, while also tallying three rebounds, two assists, and a steal over the weekend.  
-CSP shot 49% from the field and 50% from behind the arc in their 78-67 win over #3 Harding. In their two games so far this season, the Golden Bears have had a .349 three-point percentage, while holding their opponents to a .281 percentage.