ST. PAUL, Minn. -  The Golden Bear women's basketball team fell in their second conference game of the season to Wayne State by a score of 79-62 on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center. The teams were tied at halftime, but it was the Wildcats who would have a stronger second half to finish with a 17 point lead.
 
Heading into tonight's contest, the Bears were an even 19-19 against Wayne State and 2-2 in their last four matchups. Last season, the Bears ended with both a win and a loss against the Wildcats, losing in their last matchup 86-66 on January 6th, 2017.
 
This year, the Bears were led by junior Anna Schmitt, who put up 24 points while playing all forty minutes for CSP. With Saturday's efforts, she moves up two more spots in the Concordia record book and now has the 19th most career points in CSP women's basketball history with 1,159 points. Schmitt also added four assists and three rebounds, two of which were offensive. Ellie Gess scored a career-high 17 points, making it two nights in a row with a career high for the freshman guard. This was also Gess' fourth game in a row where she scored in double digits for the Bears.
 
As a team, the Bears shot 36.2% from the floor and 42.9% from three. The Wildcats were more efficient from the field, making 56.6% of their shots, but were less efficient than the Bears from three. Wayne State ended with the rebounding advantage 36-26, but only scored 10 points off of second chances, compared to CSP's seven from offensive boards. The Wildcats did, however, score 18 more points in the paint than the Bears (38-20).
 
 
The first quarter went back-and-forth for the first five minutes of play until the Wildcats were able to build up a lead heading into the second quarter up 18-12. Wayne State scored the first four of the second quarter to help them lead by ten. The Bears slowly chipped away at that lead and tied it up with two minutes left in the half. The teams would trade-off scoring until eventually heading into the break tied at 34.  The Bears had their best shooting quarter in the second frame, shooting 50% from the floor and 60% from three.
 
The third quarter featured three ties within the first four minutes, but from there the Wildcats were able to build up a little bit of a lead, going up by 11 at the end of quarter. In the final quarter Wayne State continued to pull away, going up by 16 with six minutes left to play. After this, the Bears rallied as Gess hit three three-pointers in a row to cut the lead to seven. Concordia was not able to get closer than that, and the Wildcats went on to win 62-79.
 
The Wildcats were led by senior center Paige Ballinger, who finished with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds. Teammate Maggie Schulte ended with a double-double scoring 11 points and securing 11 boards. Wayne State also ended with seven blocks throughout the contest, with Ballinger leading the efforts with four.
 
The Bears will continue conference play next weekend, playing their first road conference games against Upper Iowa on December 8^th and Winona State on December 9^th. The Friday contest will begin at 6 p.m. and Saturday's contest tips-off at 4 p.m. Follow along as the Bears look for their first conference win at cspbears.com/watch.