BISMARCK, N.D. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (11-5, 7-5 NSIC) snapped its three-game losing streak in a big way on Friday night, winning 79-58 at the University of Mary (10-11, 4-8 NSIC) at McDowell Activity Center in North Dakota's capital city.
The Golden Bears gained ground in the NSIC South Division standings tonight with their win combined with Minnesota State falling at Minot State to pull within a game of the NSIC South Division lead with MSU and CSP flipping opponents tomorrow. Sioux Falls also picked up a win to improve to 7-4, staying a half game ahead of CSP and within a half game of MSU.
Concordia tips at the Minot State Dome tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
The Golden Bears used a 19-2 scoring run spanning over six and a half minutes between the first and second quarters to mount a 29-10 lead with 6:23 to play in the first half and never looked back.
Lindsey Becher scored six of her season-high 22 points during the run, finishing with a double-double as she added a career-high 12 rebounds to go with three more blocked shots as she surpassed 100 for her career. She shot 10-15 from the field and added three assists.
During the early game run, Concordia shot 8-13 from the field and held UMary to 1-10 shooting with five turnovers.
Concordia led by as many as 20 in the first half before carrying a 40-23 lead into the break.
In the first half, Concordia held a 16-6 advantage in turnovers as junior
Meghan DuBois secured six steals in the first quarter alone on her way to picking off a career-high eight in the game, the third-most recorded in CSP's Division II era since 1999-2000 and just one shy of the single game DII-era record.
DuBois finished with seven points, eight steals, five assists and three rebounds in another solid all-around performance as four other Golden Bears scored in double-figures.
UMary would close the margin to single digits late in the third quarter, 53-44 with under a minute to play in the quarter but that was as close as the game would get as CSP pushed it back into double-digits and kept the lead there the rest of the way.
Joining Becher in double-figures was
Jadyn Hanson with 16 points including 3-of-3 from long distance, adding five rebounds and four assists while
Riley Wheatcraft added 12 points and
Sydney Zgutowicz finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.
All four Golden Bear reserves scored tonight, too, led by
Sarah Kuma's four points in eight minutes while
Megan Gamble had three points, two rebounds and two assists while playing 22 minutes.
Alyssa Daugherty returned to action and saw 12 minutes of playing time including a bucket, rebound and assists while
Sydney Schultz was productive as well, scoring and grabbing a board.
UMary was led by Lexie Schneider with 14 points on 4-13 shooting and seven rebounds while Megan Voit knocked down four three-pointers in 11 tries for 12 points. Ryleigh Wacha added 10 points and six rebounds.
Concordia shot 53.1 percent (34-64) from the field in the game, adding 50 percent (6-12) three-point shooting while holding UMary to 37.9 percent (22-58) from the field and 35.0 percent (7-20) from the arc. CSP also held a 41-33 edge on the glass and caused 22 turnovers, committing just 14.
The Golden Bears dominated inside with a 48-22 edge in the paint and 8-2 on second chance points and assisted on 21 of their 34 made shots in the win.
