SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (11-6, 9-5 NSIC) fell to the Bemidji State Beavers (10-6, 8-5 NSIC) 71-70 on Friday morning in the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament.
The Bears will now await the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Show, which is set to air on NCAA.com at 9 p.m. (CT) on Sunday, March 7. The NCAA Elite Eight will take place on March 23-26 at the Great Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The Beavers struck first in the game on a layup from Rachael Heittola, but the Bears quickly responded with a triple from senior guard
Riley Wheatcraft. BSU fought back, taking an early 6-3 lead in the first. The Beavers' momentum peaked with around four minutes remaining in the quarter as they led the Bears 17-7. Three buckets from senior forward
Sidney Wentland and a free throw from
Sydney Schultz brought the Bears back to within two, but a late BSU layup put them back on top by four. At the end of one, the Bears trailed 19-15.
The Bears played much better in the second quarter, connecting on 10-16 (62.5%) from the floor compared to the Beavers 5-18 (27.8%). The Bears went back on top 33-31 on a
Sidney Wentland jumper late in the second, taking their first lead since it was 3-2 early in the first. At the end of the first half, the teams were all tied up at 35.
Freshman forward
Lindsey Becher got CSP going in the second half, scoring the teams first four points of the third. The score remained close throughout the quarter with no team leading by more than five points. The highlight of the quarter came on an inbound pass from
Meghan DuBois. The junior took advantage of a BSU defender with her back turned, bouncing the ball of the defender's back and catching her own inbound pass before laying it in for the easy bucket. CSP took their largest lead of the game late in the third at 55-50, but BSU cut the lead to just one as the Bears carried a 57-56 lead at the end of three.
The final frame was more of a defensive effort as neither team shot better than 37.5%. Becher got the scoring started again for the Bears with a layup to push the lead to three. The teams continued to go back and forth, but it was Bemidji State jumping back on top 65-64 with around four minutes remaining. The Beavers pushed their lead all the way to five, but the Bears clawed back and made it a one-point game behind a layup and two free throws from
Lindsey Becher. With the Beavers leading 71-70 and six seconds left, the Bears took a timeout to draw up a play. The Bears got the look they wanted as
Riley Wheatcraft drove the lane for a chance at the game-winning layup, but the shot failed to drop and the Beavers rebounded to run out the clock and seal the win.
The Bears were the better shooting team throughout the game, knocking down 45.2% of their shots compared to BSU's 38.1%. It was a quiet day from the three-point line for CSP as they only attempted eight triples, making three of them. The Bears won the battle in the paint handily, outscoring the Beavers 46-38. BSU outrebounded Concordia 42-35, but the Bears shared the ball more with 19 assists to Bemidji's 12.
Wentland was the leading scorer for CSP, recording 16 points on 7-17 shooting along with four assists and three rebounds.
Lindsey Becher was the second leading scorer with 14 points on 5-10 from the floor and six rebounds. Wheatcraft and DuBois also got into double figures with 11 points and seven rebounds and 10 points and eight rebounds, respectively.
Sydney Schultz was the scoring leader off the bench, scoring eight points on 3-4 shooting.
BSU's Trinity Myer led all scorers in the game with 22 points on 6-13 shooting. Rachael Heittola also had a good game, putting up 20 points on 9-22 from the floor.
