ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (8-8, 5-7 NSIC) is back on the road this weekend to take on MSU Moorhead (8-8, 5-7 NSIC) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Northern State (10-8, 5-7 NSIC) on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

The Golden Bears are currently tied with Wayne State for fourth place in the NSIC South. Both teams hold 5-7 conference records, but the Wildcats hold the tiebreaker because of their win against CSP in December. The Concordia women will get another shot at WSC on February 11th when they travel to Nebraska for their second matchup.

MSU Moorhead and Northern State are also tied in their division with 5-7 records. The Dragons and Wolves sit in fifth place in the North Division and have split their season series, with Northern State taking the first contest 59-58, and MSU Moorhead winning the second 60-53.

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SERIES HISTORY: CSP 24, MSUM 17
Concordia and MSU Moorhead will meet for the 42nd time with Concordia winning the first four games in the series played prior to its entrance as a Division II and NSIC member in 1999-2000. After MSU Moorhead snapped CSP's 4-game streak when Concordia became the Golden Bears in 1999-2000 by winning four in a row, the Golden Bears went 18-5 against the Dragons from the 2001-02 season to the 2010-11 season, spanning 10 years of dominance in the series.
 
But the Dragons have flipped the series again by winning seven in a row before the Bears took a victory in 2022.
 
Head coach Amanda Behnke is 1-5 against MSU Moorhead, but 0-2 on the road, where Concordia is 7-9 all-time against MSUM.

LAST MEETING, 2021: Concordia 70, Moorhead 59
Concordia-St. Paul  played strong fourth quarter defense in picking up a home 70-59 win over MSU Moorhead to end their seven game losing streak to the Dragons.

Junior point guard Meghan DuBois led three Golden Bears in double-figures with 21 points, adding seven rebounds and six assists. Sophomore forward Sydney Zgutowicz contributed her fifth double-double of the year with a season-high 19 points along with 11 rebounds. She was 8-for-8 from the foul line as Concordia hit 85.3 percent (15-18) from the stripe as a team.

In the fourth quarter, Concordia drilled down defensively, holding MSU Moorhead to 21.4 percent (3-14) shooting, while on the offensive end the Golden Bears made all 10 free throws in the quarter and shot 54.5 percent (6-11).

Leading 53-51 with five and a half minutes to go, sophomore guard Jadyn Hanson went on a scoring spree over the next three minutes, hitting three straight shots for a 7-0 run and a 9-point lead. She finished with 14 points in the game, adding six rebounds and five steals.

For the game, Concordia shot 45.5 percent (25-55) while holding the Dragons to 36.1 percent (22-61).

ABOUT THE DRAGONS
The Dragons are coached by Karla Nelson, who has led the team for the past 23 years. They finished as the fourth place team in the North Division in 2021-22, and are 8-8 this season. 

MSU is third in the NSIC in scoring defense, giving up an average of just 58.6 points per game. Their defense against the 3-pointer has been a big reason for keeping their opponents score low, keeping their opponents percentage at 28.1 which is second best in the NSIC. The Golden Bears fared well against the number one team in the conference defending beyond the arc, Minnesota Crookston, breaking their average from 27.3 percent, by shooting 37-percent (10-27) in CSP's 84-69 win on Saturday.

They are 22nd in the country in fewest turnovers per game in the country (13.4) and second in the NSIC to Concordia's Saturday opponent Northern State, who have the lowest number of turnovers per game in the country at just 11 per game.
MSU Moorhead's player to watch is 6 '0 center, Peyton Boom. The fifth year senior has been named to an NSIC All-Conference team all four years she has played for the Dragons, including two NSIC First Team All-Conference selections. The senior center is averaging 13.8 pts, eight blocks, and 2.5 assists per game. She is fifth in the conference in rebounding and has pulled down the most offensive rebounds in the conference (60). She has converted on most of those putbacks and second chance points for her team, shooting 54-percent from the field, which is second in the conference and the 25th best shooting percentage in Division II this season.

SERIES HISTORY: NSU 22, CSP 18
The programs will square off for the 41st time this Friday night, with all but one of the previous meetings coming in Concordia's Division II-era starting in the 1999-2000 season, with one lone meeting in 1994 in favor of the Wolves.
 
NSU won the first five matchups as Concordia adapted to its new status as a Division II program and NSIC membership from 1999-2000 to December of 2001. Since then, Concordia holds a winning record in the series, 17-16 and has also won three of the last four contests.
 
Since head coach Amanda Johnson has been at the helm of the program (2016-present), Concordia is 3-3 against the Wolves overall and 2-2 at home.

LAST MEETING, 2021: Concordia 79, Northern State 70
Concordia-St. Paul held Northern State without a field goal in the final four-plus minutes of play, closing out their 2021 matchup on an 11-1 run to hand head coach Amanda Johnson her 100th career win as the Golden Bears beat the Wolves 78-70.

After the Wolves took a 69-67 lead with 4:01 to play on a three-pointer, the Golden Bears clamped down defensively, holding Northern State to just four field goal attempts while turning them over three times down the stretch.

Offensively, Concordia took a two-point deficit and got to work as Lindsey Becher converted twice at the line to tie the game with just over three minutes to go and a minute later, Meghan DuBois used a screen and pulled up for an open mid-range jumper for the lead.

DuBois had a big night, scoring 19 points with eight assists, knocking down 3-of-6 from the arc. Becher was also solid, scoring 15 points with seven rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals while getting to the foul line 12 times.

Concordia was strong at the foul line down the stretch, converting 7-of-8 in the last four minutes after a rough first three-and-a-half quarters from the stripe as CSP started off 12-of-23.

The Golden Bears ended up with 31 free throw attempts, making 19 and attempting more than twice as many as Northern State who went 12-of-15. The Wolves finished with a pair of players who fouled out and two others had four fouls, while no one fouled out for Concordia who had just one player pick-up four fouls on the night.

While Concordia was good in the closing minutes from the foul line, they were strong throughout from the arc, hitting 9-of-20 as a team to shoot 45.0 percent while limiting NSU to just 22.2 percent (4-18) three-point shooting.

ABOUT THE WOLVES
Northern State enters the week with a 10-8 record and takes on Minnesota State on Friday night, before taking on CSP Saturday. Head coach Paula Krueger is in her fifth season with Northern State and has a 3-2 record against the Golden Bears. 

Golden State has been the number one team in the country this season in protecting the ball, limiting their turnovers to just 11 per game. They have held their opponents to just 37.7-percent and have average the 16th most blocks in the country (4.61) and third in the conference behind Minnesota Duluth (4.71) and Concordia-St. Paul who averages the fourth most blocks per game in the conference with 5.19. 

The Wolves front-court duo are the players to watch this week, represented by  6'4 forward Kailee Oliverson and 6-2 forward Laurie Rodgers. The Oliverson was selected to NSIC First Team All-Conference for the 2021-22 season and leads NSU in scoring this season with 12.4 points per game. Rodgers leads the NSIC in blocks this season with 40 and is seventh in rebounds per game with 7.4, while averaging 11.1 points.