ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Golden Bear women's basketball (7-6, 4-6 NSIC) dropped their final conference contest of the weekend against St. Cloud State (10-4, 6-3 NSIC) 69-49 at Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul. The Bears trailed throughout but kept it close for most of the game, until the Huskies closed the door in the fourth, outscoring Concordia 24-12 in the final quarter to pick up their 10th victory. 

Despite Leah Dengerud and Megan Gamble hitting their first two 3-point shots, the Golden Bears found themselves down nine at the end of the quarter. After a Raegen Alexander layup tied the game up at 8-8, the Huskies would reel off nine straight points to close out the quarter with a 17-8 lead. SCSU found success down low in the first quarter, outscoring the Golden Bears 10-2 in points in the paint, led by seven points by freshman guard Jada Eggebrecht.

The Golden Bear's offense started to pick it up in the second quarter, improving their shooting from the field from 21.4 percent from the first quarter to 41.7 in the second frame. Jalyn Shaw shook off a rough shooting first quarter to score 10 points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer and was 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. Even with the offensive improvements, the Huskies were still able to outscore CSP in the quarter 18-17 with efficient shooting and continuing to pound the ball down low to extend their lead to 10 points heading into the half, 35-25. 

Concordia had its most complete defensive quarter in the third, holding St. Cloud to 2-of-11 from the field (20-percent), their worst shooting period of the contest. The Huskies were able to get to and convert from the foul line, hitting 6-of-8 to hold on to most of their lead. A major momentum shift came at the end of the third quarter, when Jadyn Hanson appeared to beat the buzzer on a desperation 3-pointer to cut the lead to five heading into the final quarter. It was not to be, as the referees waived off the basket during the quarter break. 

The CSP deficit was at eight to start the fourth, 45-37, but was quickly extended as SCSU tried to close the door. A three minute 11-0 run to start the quarter was just what the Huskies ordered as it more than doubled their lead, 56-37. Shots would not fall for the Golden Bears as Leah Dengerud seemed to be the only one able to score in the fourth quarter, accounting for nine Concordia's 12 points. SCSU on the other hand, had their hottest shooting quarter, hitting 61.5 percent of their shots (8-of-13), and for the third quarter in a row, they got eight foul shot attempts, connecting on seven of them. 

Jalyn Shaw and Leah Dengerud tied for the team lead in scoring, as both put up 12 points. It was the first double digit scoring effort since November for Shaw, who was just 3-of-13 from the field, but knocked in all five of her free-throw attempts. The junior forward also finished with two rebounds and a steal. Dengurud opened the game for the Golden Bears with a 3-pointer to put them on the board and scored the rest of her points in the fourth quarter. The freshman guard shot efficiently, going 4-of-6 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe, tying her season high point total from New Year's Eve against Minnesota State.

The Golden Bears finished the game shooting 30.2 percent from the field (16-of-53), 25 percent from behind the arc (4-of-16), and 72.2 from the line (13-of-18). The Huskies won the battle underneath the basket, out rebounding the CSP women 39 to 26 and outscoring them in points in the paint, 34-24. One reason for that was the historic rebounding night for Tori Peschel who pulled down 17 rebounds, tying for the second most in a single game in St. Cloud State history.

Jada Eggebrecht finished with 19 points to lead SCSU, going 7-for-13 from the field (53.8 percent), and made her only 3-point attempt. TheWisconsin native also added four rebounds and two assists. 

The Golden Bears will pack up for their first road trip of 2023 this weekend. The Concordia women will prepare to take on Bemidji State (4-10, 1-9 NSIC) on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. and then head to Minnesota Crookston (8-8, 7-3 NSIC) on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. tip-off.