ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (7-1, 3-0 NSIC) recorded their best start in NSIC play for the first time since the 2020-21 season when the team started 5-0. The Golden Bears defeated Wayne State (3-3, 0-3 NSIC) 65-58 in the Gangelhoff Center on Sunday.
Redshirt freshman Lauren Wilson led the charge for the Golden Bears with 18 points after shooting 8-10 from the field. She added two assists and two steals to her tally.
Senior guard Ally Gietzel finished with her second double-double on the weekend with 13 points and 10 rebounds playing all 40 minutes in the game. She continued her free throw streak of 21 from the Augustana game on Saturday, extending it to 26 before missing her 27th free throw. She finished the day 9-10 from the charity stripe.
Junior Mikayla Kanenwisher scored a season-high 12 points with seven coming in the first quarter. She also tallied a season-high five rebounds and two assists. Leah Dengerud finished with 8 points and six rebounds. Emma Mommsen finished with six points and Lindsey Becher finished with four.
The Golden Bears started the game strong in the first quarter outscoring the Wildcats 20-11 after Kanenwisher's seven points. Wayne State cut the Concordia lead to six points at the half.
The third quarter was the highest-scoring quarter with 42 points scored among both teams. Wilson led the way with nine points in the quarter to give CSP a slight 22-20 advantage.
The fourth quarter ended up being the opposite, with Wayne State holding a slight 12-11 advantage. The Golden Bears were able to counter Wayne State's pressure with their own solid defense to hold the lead and win the game by seven.
Wayne State outscored CSP in the paint 44-36 and 15-13 off of turnovers. WSC's bench outscored CSP's bench 17-10. CSP held the lead for 34:17 compared to only 3:33 for Wayne State. There were five lead changes and three ties in the game.
Wayne State was led by Britney Ho with 16 points shooting 8-15 from the field. Maya Fitzpatrick tied that total with 16 of her own going 7-15 from the field. Brooklyn Kruse tallied 10 points.
The Golden Bears return to action on the road this upcoming weekend against Southwest Minnesota State (2-6, 1-2 NSIC) on Friday, Dec. 8. The Golden Bears will finish up the road trip against Sioux Falls (3-4, 1-2 NSIC) on Saturday, Dec. 9.
