ST. PAUL, Minn.- The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (10-10, 7-9 NSIC) knocked off the University of Mary (11-8, 10-6 NSIC) on Saturday evening, 58-49. With the win and Wayne State's 65-61 loss to St. Cloud State, the Golden Bears move into sole possession of the fourth seed in the NSIC South. 

It was all defense in the first half as both teams combined for 12 made baskets over the first two quarters. The Golden Bears used turnovers to generate scoring opportunities in the first quarter scoring seven of their 10 points off takeaways. The final three points of the quarter came from the foul line, where CSP was 3-of-3 for the quarter.

UMary opened the second quarter down 10-8, but were able to win the half with the aid of back-to-back 3-pointers by Megan Voit. On the other side of the ball Concordia was stifled at the 3-point line, going 0-for-8 in the quarter and putting the ball in the basket just twice on layups from Jalyn Shaw and Ally Gietzel. The low-scoring half ended with a slight 18-16 lead for the Marauders. 

The Concordia defense continued to play well in the third quarter and the offense finally started to catch up. The Golden Bears shot 38.5-percent in the third, compared to their 14.7-shooting percentage in the first half. The CSP women were also perfect from the line, connecting on all seven of their opportunities from the charity stripe. After a Gietzel layup gave the Bears the lead back, Concordia would go on a short 7-0 run to give them a small cushion heading into the fourth quarter with a 33-26 advantage.

The Marauders finally started to get shots to fall in the final period, shooting above 30-percent in a quarter for the first time in the game. Fortunately, the Golden Bears built on their third quarter success, shooting 44-percent from the field, including two 3-pointers from Shaw. In an attempt to slow down the Bears, the Marauders put them in the foul line, where CSP shined all night. Concordia was 27-of-28 from the foul line for the game and 15-of-16 in the fourth quarter, including the final 13 points of the game. Each spark of a UMary comeback was snuffed out and the Golden Bears would close out the game with a 58-49 victory.

Ally Gietzel led the Golden Bears in scoring for the second night in a row, putting up 16 points and was one board away from a double-double with nine. The transfer wing added three assists and a block.

Fellow 2022 transfer Jalyn Shaw finished with a season high 14 points and a career high 14 rebounds for her first double-double of the year. The junior forward also had three Marauder takeaways. 

The Golden Bears were 27-of-28 from the foul line, matching their best mark from their game against Northern Michigan on November 27th, 2010 for the highest free throw percentage in Concordia history when shooting more than 15 attempts. 

CSP is back home again next weekend to take on the Sioux Falls Cougars on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.