ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (9-2, 5-1 NSIC) beat No. 22 Minnesota Duluth (7-3, 4-2 NSIC) by a score of 69-60 on Thursday night. The Golden Bears had four different scorers reach double digits in the victory.
Concordia-St. Paul was led in scoring by junior center Lindsey Becher with 17 points for her fourth-highest scoring total of the season. She also tied the team lead with seven rebounds, three of which came on the offensive glass. She only played 22:11 of the game due to finding herself in foul trouble most of the night.
Minnesota Duluth never had the lead in the contest. There were four ties in the game, all of which came in the first quarter, and CSP held the lead for a total of 35:28. The Golden Bears got off to a good start leading the game 13-6 after the opening 7:46 to play. Sophomore guard Leah Dengerud hit a 3-pointer following a steal to cap off the Golden Bears 7-0 run.
The Bulldogs followed up CSP's run with a 7-0 run of their own to tie up the game for the final time. Becher made a floating jumper with six seconds left in the quarter to give CSP the two-point lead going into the break. Becher scored six points in the opening quarter. Both teams shot 50% from the field in the first quarter as well.
The second quarter was back-and-forth with CSP never having more than a five-point lead during it. Redshirt freshman forwards Lauren Wilson and Emma Mommsen got going in the paint. The Golden Bears outscored Duluth 14-6 in the paint during the quarter with Wilson and Mommsen combining for 10 of those points. Concordia-St. Paul held a 29-26 lead at the halftime break.
With Minnesota Duluth threatening in the third quarter trailing 37-33 with 5:25 left, Dengerud hit her second 3-pointer of the game to extend the Golden Bear lead to seven. She hit CSP's only two 3-pointers in the game. CSP held that seven-point lead going into the third quarter leading 49-42.
After the Bulldogs hit the opening shot of the fourth quarter, CSP answered with an 8-2 run to extend the lead to 11. Duluth eventually cut the lead down to six points with 2:57 left in the contest. Concordia-St. Paul did not give in to the run, hitting 9-11 free throws down the stretch to secure the 69-60 victory. The Golden Bears were 4-13 from the charity stripe in the game before that stretch.
Wilson tallied 15 points on the night shooting 6-8 from the field. She added four rebounds and two assists. Senior guard Ally Gietzel scored 13 points with 11 in the second half. She also tied for the team lead in rebounds with seven and had a team-high three blocks. Dengerud finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two steals. Junior forward Megan Gamble had a season-high five assists with seven points. -
Madelyn Granica led the Bulldogs with 15 points and Taytum Rhoades scored 14 shooting 6-16 from the field. The Golden Bears held the leading scorer for the Bulldogs, Taya Hakamaki, to 2-14 shooting from the field and 1-7 on 3-pointers scoring only nine points. She came into the game averaging 13.9 points shooting 50.6% from the field and 38.5% from behind the arc.
The Golden Bears held a 44-32 advantage in the paint. CSP's bench outscored Duluth's bench 22-9. Concordia also outscored the Bulldogs on turnovers 15-8. CSP shot 49.1% from the field compared to 37.5% for the Bulldogs. CSP outrebounded Duluth 41-32.
Concordia-St. Paul has one more contest before Christmas Break against Minnesota State (8-4, 5-1 NSIC) on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Taylor Center in Mankato, Minn. Thursday's game was CSP's last home game of 2023 with the team's next two home contests scheduled for the Jan. 5-6 weekend.
