KENOSHA, Wis. – Concordia-St. Paul (1-1) secured its first win of the 2022-23 campaign on Saturday afternoon with a 74-64 victory at Parkside (1-3) at De Simone Arena in the HARIBO Invitational.
 
The Golden Bears open Northern Sun play on Tuesday at #15 Minnesota State (3-0) at 7:30 p.m. at Taylor Center.
 
The game featured two ties and eight lead changes and after Parkside held the upper hand in the first quarter with an 18-9 lead, Concordia used a 14-4 spurt to start the second quarter, turning a 21-15 deficit into a 29-25 lead midway through the second quarter.
 
The game remained tight, though, with neither team able to secure separation with CSP holding a 1-point lead (34-33) at the break.
 
In the third quarter, Concordia was able to pull away with a 28-20 margin built on an extended 15-7 stretch of play to take the game's first double-digit lead with a 59-48 advantage late in the third quarter.
 
The Rangers wouldn't crumble on their home court, though, trimming the margin back to six with 20 seconds to play in the quarter when sophomore guard Sarah Kuma buried a three-pointer at the horn to give Concordia a 9-point lead (62-53) heading into the final frame.
 
The Golden Bears wouldn't relinquish their lead the rest of the way as Kuma scored 16 points in the game including a pair of three-pointers as CSP led the entire second half.
 
Fellow third-year sophomore Lindsey Becher provided the inside scoring for CSP, producing 17 points, four rebounds, six blocks and a pair of steals. She was efficient from the floor, putting up her 17 points on 7-12 shooting.
 
Concordia had its hands full defensively with the reigning GLIAC Player of the Year, Alyssa Nelson, but bottled her up to 14 points on a tough shooting day (6-16) with junior Illinois-Springfield transfer Ally Gietzel making an impact in all aspects of the game. In addition to her defensive prowess, Gietzel had eight points, 11 rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes of play.
 
The CSP defense held Parkside scoreless from the 8:19 mark of the fourth quarter to the 1:50 mark, a span of nearly six and a half minutes during a stretch of play where CSP's offense also stalled. It was sophomore Megan Gamble who snapped CSP's three-and-a-half-minute scoring drought with three minutes to play at the foul line, hitting a pair of free throws to push CSP's lead back to 10, 68-58.
 
Gamble was strong off the bench with 12 points on 4-6 shooting (4-4 FT), adding four rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes.
 
The Golden Bear defense held Parkside to 11 points on 4-18 fourth-quarter shooting while the Golden Bears only needed to take six shots (2-6), putting in eight points at the foul line to ice the game (8-12).
 
In the third quarter when CSP started to pull away, the Golden Bears shot 55.6 percent (10-18) from the field and 87.5 percent (7-8) from the line.