ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia Golden Bears women's basketball team (17-7, 13-5 NSIC) extended their winning streak to an impressive 10 straight games with a 70-59 win against Minnesota Duluth (13-9, 11-7 NSIC), Saturday evening inside the Gangelhoff Center.

CSP has been playing some very good basketball as of late and have now become the fourth team since 2009-10 to win 10 or more straight games. The 2012-13 team holds the record with 15 consecutive games won.

The starting five Concordia handled the scoring tonight and leading the way for the Golden Bears was Caitlyn Russell who scored a game-high 24 points, pulled in a game-high eight rebounds, and blocked a game-high four shots. Russell has now scored 20+ points in five straight games.

Anna Schmitt finished with 19 points and six rebounds for CSP, while Mishayla Jones added 12 points and team-high four assists.

Brianna Miller played a very well rounded game as she scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds, stole two passes, played in all 40 minutes, and held the Bulldogs leading scorer to nine points, four points below her season average. Kayla Miller finished with seven points, while knocking down a pair of triples and stealing two passes.

Minnesota Duluth was led by Sammy Kozlowski who scored a team-high 19 points while handing out a game-high six assists. Josie Buckley added 10 points and five rebounds off the bench for UMD. Taylor Meyer scored nine points, all off of 3-pointers, and grabbed seven rebounds.

Concordia and Duluth traded baskets for the first three minutes of the game and with the game tied at four apiece, UMD came up with some big defensive plays that converted into offense and their first lead of the game.

The Bulldogs lead would reach as much as six with about four minutes remaining in the opening frame, but the Golden Bears would respond with a 13-2 run to close out the quarter thanks to some stellar defense and a 3-pointer by Mishayla Jones with 49 seconds left and then another 3-pointer by Brianna Miller as time expired would give CSP a 19-14 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

Early in the second quarter the Golden Bears would reach their largest lead of the first half, jumping out to a 25-16 advantage with 8:24 remaining before the intermission. Minnesota Duluth would respond with a 9-4 run to pull within two points with just over two minutes left in the quarter.

Despite the Bulldogs inching closer and closer, CSP would not surrender their lead as they would take a 34-32 lead into the locker room.

UMD shot the ball extremely well in the first half going 15-28 (53.8%) from the floor and did not attempt a single free-throw in the first 20 minutes of play. Concordia also shot the ball fairly decent in the half as they went 15-31 (48.4%) from the field.

Anna Schmitt led CSP with 13 first half points on 6-9 shooting and also added five rebounds. Sammy Kozlowski led UMD also with 13 points in the half and a team-high three assists.

Coming out of the intermission, there would be two lead changes and three ties in the first three minutes and 20 seconds before the Golden Bears put together a 14-3 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game of 52-42 heading into the final quarter of play.

In the final quarter of play, Concordia would build their lead up to 14 before UMD made their first basket in seven minutes. CSP would lead by double-digits the rest of the way and would build their lead to as much as 18 at the 3:23 mark.

Caitlyn Russell was dominate in the quarter as she scored 10 of her 24 points in the quarter helping Concordia come away with the 70-59 win.

Concordia is now 21-21 all-time against Minnesota Duluth.

The Golden Bears are in action again next weekend for their final two road games of the regular season as they travel to #20 Winona State on Friday, Feb. 10 at 6 pm. They conclude their road trip against Upper Iowa on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 4 pm.