BISMARCK, N.D. - Trailing by eight points entering the fourth quarter, Concordia-St. Paul (4-12, 1-9 NSIC) turned to a lock down defense to get back into the game at the University of Mary's (7-10, 3-8 NSIC) McDowell Activity Center on Friday night. But the Marauders finished strong making nine of its 10 free throws in the closing minute of play to hold off Concordia's comeback bid in a 74-66 final.

Concordia junior guard Anna Schmitt scored 14 of Concordia's 16 fourth quarter points including 14 in a row until the final CSP bucket was converted by Hanna Vidlund with 10 seconds to play. Schmitt finished with 28 points on 12-19 shooting including 3-6 from the three-point arc.

It was Schmitt's eighth 20-plus point game of the year and her second most points in a game during her junior campaign.

The 28 points moved her up two spots on the all-time scoring list into 16th with 1,275 points. She moved ahead of Carly Christensen (1,253, 2001-05) and Candace Olstad (1,267, 2005-09) and is 30 points shy of Sandi Hammes (1,305, 1984-87) for 15th.

The Bears blanked the Marauders for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter as part of a longer stretch in which U-Mary scored just one point in over eight and a half minutes of basketball from late in the third quarter until 3:44 to play in the game.

Unfortunately for the Golden Bears, the rims at McDowell were nearly as unfriendly on the other end as CSP scored six points during the same stretch of play to cut down a 58-50 deficit to start the fourth quarter to a two point game, 58-56 with four minutes to go.

From there, the Marauders caught fire to finish strong, making three shots in a row for a 7-0 run to push the lead back to nine, its second largest lead of the night after a 14-4 start in the first five minutes of play.

After the three straight Marauder buckets made it a nine point game, Concordia stormed back behind Schmitt as she converted the and-1 with 1:11 to go and a layup with 55 seconds.

After a Haydn Becker steal, Schmitt buried a three-pointer as she scattered eight points around two Marauder free throws to make it a 67-64 contest with 49 seconds to play.

That's when the Marauder free throw shooting really escalated, as U-Mary went on a 6-0 run at the foul line in a 26 second span to put the game away.

While the score remained a single digit margin for nearly the entire contest with the Marauders holding the only double-digit lead at 14-4 five minutes into play, there was only one tie and two lead changes throughout and CSP only led for 22 seconds of the game when freshman Ayla Lemke made a three-pointer to give CSP an 18-17 edge with 1:09 to play in the first quarter, which was erased 22 seconds later.

Concordia forced a tie at 27 when Schmitt made a layup with 5:45 to play in the second quarter, with the score remaining knotted for the next 1:37 before U-Mary went back on top for good.

Lemke had a strong game in the post with her first double-digit rebound game finishing with 10 boards, adding five points.

Sophomore Brianna Miller added 11 points on 5-10 shooting and pulled down six rebounds to go with two steals. Junior Kayla Miller contributed nine points on efficient 4-6 shooting while making her only three-point attempt. She added four rebounds.

The Marauders were led by Gabbie Bohl's 17 points and nine rebounds while Dani Williams knocked down 3-6 from the arc to score 13. Jordyn Jossart led all reserves in the game with 11 points off the U-Mary bench, hitting 3-5 from the arc (4-6 FG).

Like D.Williams and Jossart, Macy Williams also buried three from deep (3-9) as the Marauders made 10 three-pointers on their home nets (10-28, .357) compared to Concordia's six (6-17, .353).

The Golden Bears continue their North Dakota tour on Saturday evening with a 4 p.m. tip at Minot State.