ST. PAUL, Minn.- The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team advances to 5-1 after defeating Winona State 83-42 in the late game on Thursday night at the Gangelhoff Center. The win is the largest margin of victory in 2021-22 so far and brings the Golden Bears to 1-1 in NSIC play.
As a squad, the Golden Bears led in every single category except free throw percentage where the Warriors took the edge 83.3% to 71.4% and turnovers where the away team had 21 compared to the home team's 11. The Bears never allowed the Warriors to take the lead and ended the game with their largest lead of 41 points.
The Golden Bear squad shined against the Warriors, outscoring their opponents by nearly double, with effort from the offense and defense as well as rookies and veterans alike.
Freshman forward Lindsey Becher led the scoring for the Golden Bears with 18 total points and a 23.0 efficiency. In 28 minutes played, she went 9-14 in field goals while also earning seven rebounds and leading with five steals. She is a top-20 scorer in the NSIC through her six games played this season.
Another freshman, Megan Gamble, had a great night. The forward put up 11 points, her best in a Bear uniform, went 4-8 in field goals, and went 3-3 in free throws. She led her squad with nine rebounds and also picked up three assists and a block in 16 minutes.
Following Becher closely was senior guard Riley Wheatcraft with 16 points. Wheatcraft went 6-11 in field goals and led her team 4-6 in three-pointers. She also managed three rebounds, two assists, and three steals in 28 minutes played. As of this writing, the guard sits in 10th place in the NSIC in scoring with 89 points in six games.
Meghan DuBois, a junior guard, led the Bears in free throws after going 4-5 and led in assists with seven. In her 30 minutes played, she had four rebounds and four steals while putting up 13 points and going 1-5 in threes. DuBois's four steals in the game put her in fifth place in the league in that category with 17 total on the season, three more than the sixth place spot, and her 30 minutes played puts her at second in the league with 220 total minutes.
Defensively, the Golden Bears place sixth in the league with a 5-1 record, 364 points, and a 60.7 AVG/G, following behind Minnesota Duluth. The Bears made 26 rebounds compared to the Warriors' 19. They also managed 10 fastbreak points with 15 steals in the game.
The Golden Bears will play again on Saturday, December 4 in Fayette, Iowa as they take on the Upper Iowa Peacocks at 4 p.m. to finish off the weekend.
