ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (1-0) opened up their season against Southeastern Oklahoma State (0-1) with a 67-43 victory over the Savage Storm at the Central Region Crossover Challenge.
After leading by nine points at the half, the Golden Bears stepped it up in the second half outscoring the Storm 41-26. CSP held Southeastern Oklahoma State to an 18% field goal percentage in the game. The Savage Storm scored 16 of their 43 points off of free throws. Concordia never trailed in the game.
With 2:03 left in the second quarter, CSP only led by three points. The Golden Bears then hit back-to-back 3-pointers by senior Ally Gietzel and sophomore Lauren Feddema to extend their lead to nine points at the half.
Concordia-St. Paul started the second half on a 16-4 run and outscored the Storm 20-9 in the third quarter. Redshirt freshman forward Lauren Wilson led the scoring efforts in the third quarter with seven points
Wilson led the overall scoring efforts for the Golden Bears totaling 13 points in the game. She shot 5-6 from the field which included going 2-3 from behind the arc. Wilson also tallied five rebounds, two assists and one steal in the contest.
Gietzel picked up right where she left off after a Second Team All-NSIC season last year. She finished with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds. She led the team in minutes played with 34.
Feddema finished the game with 11 points shooting 3-4 from behind the 3-point line. Redshirt freshman Emma Mommsen finished with eight points shooting 4-5 from the field. She also was second on the team in rebounds with six.
Megan Gamble, Lindsey Becher and Jalyn Shaw all finished with six points each. Leah Dengerud tallied five points and Mikayla Kanenwisher led the team in assists with four, which all came in the first half.
The Golden Bear bench outscored the Storm's bench 38-16. CSP outscored Southeastern in the paint 28-12 and scored five more points off of turnovers.
Concordia-St. Paul returns to action on Saturday night against No. 25 Missouri Western State with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. for the team's last game at the Central Region Crossover.
