ST. PAUL, Minn. - Trailing by double-digits in the fourth quarter for the second straight night, Concordia-St. Paul (16-7, 12-7 NSIC) outscored Wayne State (9-13, 6-12 NSIC) 27-12 in the final nine minutes of play to secure a 76-71 win on Saturday at Gangelhoff Center.

With their win combined with a loss by Augustana at Minnesota State this evening, Concordia clinches at least the second seed from the South Division for the NSIC Sanford Health Basketball Tournament. The Golden Bears receive a first round bye and advance to the quarterfinals on either Saturday, February 26 or Sunday, February 27.

But first, Concordia will play two more regular season games, next Thursday at Winona State at 5:30 p.m. followed by senior day at home next Saturday against Upper Iowa at 3:30 p.m. The Golden Bears still have their sights set on an NSIC South Division Championship and the top seed. Concordia trails Minnesota State (14-5) by two games with two to play and holds the tie-breaker by virtue of MSU's 1-game nullification penalty. MSU also plays WSU and UIU, but in reverse order and opposite locations.

In Concordia's comeback win tonight, the Golden Bears finished the game red-hot from the floor, making 8-of-13 led by freshman forward Lindsey Becher's 12 points down the stretch as she finished the game with 20 points on just 11 shots (7-11), adding five rebounds, four blocked shots while drawing six fouls with her inside presence.

The Golden Bears also got to the foul line with frequently down the stretch, attempting 14 free throws to Wayne State's zero, a stark contrast to how the Wildcats developed their 10-point lead in the first 3-plus quarters when they were 12-of-13 at the stripe to CSP's 5-for-9.

CSP finished the night 14-for-22 (63.6%) at the line led by Becher's 6-for-8 while sophomores Sydney Zgutowicz and Jadyn Hanson made their only two free throws of the game in crunch time; Zgutowicz at 35 seconds to make it a 3-point lead (74-71) and Hanson at 13 seconds for a 5-point lead (76-71).

Zgutowicz had a big night, scoring 14 points while adding a career-high 16 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the year while Hanson had a career-high eight assists including four in a row during the pivotal fourth quarter run. Hanson led all players in the contest with a +15 in 33 minutes, and Zgutowicz dished two of our her assists during the fourth quarter run, as well.

While Hanson had eight assists, junior point guard Meghan DuBois had a big night in the CSP backcourt, too, scoring 16 points with five assists. She did not commit a turnover and drained three from the arc.

DuBois wasn't the only Golden Bear to knock down a trio from long range, as senior Riley Wheatcraft was 3-6 from three and 5-9 from the floor. She scored 14 points, had six rebounds and matched Becher's four blocked shots.

The two teams shot similar percentages from the floor, with CSP making 26-63 to WSC's 26-64, but the Golden Bears hit 10 three-pointers (10-28) to WSC's seven (7-20) and despite shooting nearly 30 percent less than Wayne State, still outscored the Wildcats by two (14-12) at the stripe.

The big difference this evening came in the turnover differential, with CSP committing just eight turnovers against a Wildcat squad that entered the weekend forcing 16.7 per game, third-best in the NSIC. The Golden Bears kept the Wildcats true to their own ball-handling misfortunes, too, as the league's most turnover-prone squad entering the weekend (17.0) committed 16 against CSP.

Wayne State committed seven of their 16 turnovers in the final nine minutes.

The result was a 6-point margin in favor of Concordia (16-10) in points off turnovers, one more than the difference in the 5-point final margin.

Concordia and Wayne State went into the halftime locker room tied at 33 following CSP's 22-14 second quarter when the Golden Bears shot 8-17 from the field (47.1%) and 5-10 from three while limiting Wayne State to just 3-17 (17.6%) shooting. In the first half, Concordia held NSIC scoring leader Kylie Hammer to 0-6 shooting through the first 15-plus minutes of play.

When Hammer got rolling, the Wildcats were able to assume the lead, and she finished the night with a game-high 27 points despite 9-22 shooting while hitting all seven of her free throws and 2-4 from three. She also had eight rebounds and three assists, but CSP forced her to commit four turnovers.