ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (5-4, 2-3 NSIC) hit the road this weekend for their final two games before Christmas. The Bears finish up their first round of NSIC South games taking on Southwest Minnesota State and (7-3, 4-1 NSIC) Friday night at 5:30 p.m., before crossing into South Dakota to play Sioux Falls (4-7, 1-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at 3:30. 

BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
Fans are encouraged to buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.

WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC men's and women's basketball games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear 
Athletics.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears dropped both games at home last week, falling to Wayne State 62-53 and Augustana 84-52. Turnovers were one of the biggest common issues between the two games as CSP ended up with a combined 50 giveaways to the Wildcats and Vikings.

The CSP women's turnover troubles started early against Wayne State (7-2, 3-2 NSIC), allowing the Wildcats to jump out to a 15-5 lead. The Golden Bears were able to settle down during the final few minutes of the quarter with a Ally Gietzel turnaround jumper starting a Concordia 8-2 run to close out the quarter with Wayne State leading 17-13.

The Bears were scoreless from behind the arc in the first half on six attempts, but hit all four of their shots from the foul line to outscore the Wildcats in the quarter 12-11 and head to the locker room down 28-25. 

The start of the second half mirrored the beginning of the game, with the third quarter starting with a big run by Wayne State, with the Wildcats out-scoring the Bears 10-0 through the first 3.5 minutes of the quarter. After an 0-for-5 start to the quarter, a driving layup by junior forward Jalyn Shaw was able to get CSP on the board. 

The fourth quarter opened with the Golden Bears down 47-38. A short 6-2 run by CSP cut the lead to five, but the comeback would be short lived as the Wildcats answered with a 11-4 run of their own to put the game out of reach. Free throws and a Hanson 3-pointer at the buzzer would bring the final deficit to nine as Wayne State took the win 62-53.

Augustana Vikings took the victory in Saturday's game, defeating CSP 84-52 to move up to #8 in this week's Central Region Poll.
 
Concordia got off to a promising start, taking an 8-2 lead sparked by a pair of 3-point baskets from Bears guard Sarah Kuma. Augusta would respond with their own 8-3 run before trading free throws with CSP to tie it up at 15-15. 

A 6-0 Concordia run out of the half that included a  three-point play by Megan Gamble and a pull-up jumper by Ally Gietzel brought the Bears to within one point with 7:19 left in the quarter. From there the game started to slip away fast. The Golden Bears offense hit a major cold streak, making just two shots from the field over the next nine minutes as they watched the Vikings go on a 28-6 run to go up 65-42 with 7:44 left in the game. 

After one last 9-2 run by Concordia, fueled by Becher and Gietzel, Augustana closed out the game with a 17-1 run over the final five minutes to take the victory 84-52. 

Ally Gietzel was the top player for the Bears this week, averaging 13 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists. The junior forward recorded her first double-double of the season and fourth of her career against Wayne State, scoring sixteen to go along with 10 rebounds. She also finished with three assists, a block, and a steal. 

SERIES HISTORY: CSP 44, SMSU 18
The Golden Bears continue to hold a firm grip on the all-time series as the teams meet for the 63rd time this Saturday. 
 
After starting 4-14 against the Mustangs in games played between 1975 and 2002, the Golden Bears have a 40-4 record against SMSU with all four of those losses coming at the R/A Facility in Marshall where SMSU picked up wins in 2005, 2011 and 2021, 2022.
 
Since being promoted to head coach in 2016, Amanda Johnson holds a 12-2 record against SMSU and is 6-0 at home against the Mustangs. Concordia has won 18 of the last 20, but Southwestern Minnesota State has the most recent win in the series with a 94-85 double overtime victory in their final game against the Bears in 2021-22.

LAST MEETING WITH SMSU
Concordia-St. Paul center Lindsey Becher scored a career-high 31 points including the game tying free throws with 1.3 seconds left in regulation, but the Golden Bears ultimately fell 94-85 in double overtime to Southwest Minnesota State at the R/A Facility.

She tied the program's record for most field goals made (14) and attempted (26) in Concordia's Division II-era. She added seven rebounds, six blocked shots, two assists and two steals. 

Concordia had a pair of 4-point leads (73-69 and 75-71) during the first overtime and also held a 77-75 lead with 38 seconds remaining. But the Mustangs scored with 34 seconds left and the Golden Bears were not able to answer, turning it over to SMSU on a shot clock violation with 4.5 seconds left, sending the game to a second overtime.

In the second overtime, SMSU scored the first five points and didn't look back. Concordia never had the ball while trailing by one possession the rest of the way, and the Mustangs made 12-of-13 from the foul line in the last five minute session to seal the win.

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
Southwest Minnesota State enters the week at 7-3 and are 4-1 in conference play putting them second in the NSIC south, behind #4 Minnesota State. Their biggest win came at home against then #15 Augustana, taking the victory in blowout fashion 94-60 and their only conference loss came at Wayne State 72-62.

SMSU is averaging 78.4 points per game which is 22nd in the country and third in the NSIC, while their defense ranks 9th in the conference, giving up an average of 63.3 points to opponents.They success against NSIC opponents has come from efficient shooting with the Mustangs currently number one in the NSIC and 16th in the country in shooting percentage at 46.2 percent.

Southwest Minnesota State's player to watch is Bri Stoltzman. The sophomore guard is averaging 13.4 points per game, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists. Her shooting percentage of .570 has her in the top 25 nationally and third in the NSIC. Her best game came against Michigan Tech when she recorded a 21 point double-double with 10 rebounds, adding five assists and two steals.

SERIES HISTORY: CSP 13, USF 8
The Golden Bears hold a .619 winning percentage against Sioux Falls dating back to when the Cougars joined the NSIC in 2012-13 with CSP winning the first six meetings. 

Recently, the Golden Bears have won the last three contests with an 11 point average margin of victory. Concordia improved to 7-4 at home against USF, but has split the last four at Gangelhoff Center.

Under head coach Amanda Johnson, Concordia is 7-7 against Sioux Falls overall and 3-3 in road games dating back to January 2016.

LAST MEETING WITH USF
The Golden Bears posted a strong 74-65 road win at Sioux Falls in a pivotal contest between the second and third ranked teams in the division. 

Concordia held the advantage throughout on Friday night, leading by as many as 18 points (37-19) in the second quarter in a game that featured only two ties and three lead changes with Sioux Falls' last lead being early in the game, 8-6 in the first four minutes of play.

With the early deficit, Concordia was able to take the early lead back in the first quarter, and with a 20-17 lead late in the first quarter, the Golden Bears took control with a 14-0 run in just three and a half minutes of play to wrestle control of the contest in their favor for a 34-17 advantage with 7:57 to play in the first half.

The Cougars pushed the lead back to single digits once in the second quarter before CSP held a 14-point halftime lead (43-29) and once in the third quarter before CSP pushed it back to an 11-point margin (61-50). In the fourth quarter, the Cougars inched closer, getting the CSP lead to six (67-61) with 5:46 to play, but it was not to be as the Bears closed it out to win 74-65.

ABOUT THE COUGARS
USF came into the 2022-23 season picked to finish fourth in NSIC, but it has not played out that way so far. Sioux Falls holds a record of 4-7 and has struggled against NSIC opponents so far this season, losing four out of five, with their only win coming against Upper Iowa 79-71.

The Cougars have struggled on the glass this season, ranking in last place in the NSIC in average team rebounds per game (31.5) and rebounding margin (-8.8). USF has done a good job protecting the ball and getting takeaways, forcing an average of 17.55 turnovers per game (Fourth in the NSIC), while only turning the ball over 13.5 times a game. Their turnover margin of 4.09 ranks fourth in the NSIC. 

2021-22 NSIC Second Team All-Conference guard, Megan Fannin, is the Cougars player to watch this week. The redshirt-sophomore enters the game ranked 11th in the NSIC for 3-point makes with 18. Fanning has been a boom or bust player this year, scoring more than 16 points in four games, including 23 and 20 point outputs, but has been shut down for six points or less in more than 50 percent of the USF games. If she can find her shot, she can be a dangerous weapon for Upper Iowa