MARSHALL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (7-2, 3-1 NSIC) took their first NSIC loss to Southwest Minnesota State (3-6, 2-2 NSIC) on Friday night. The Golden Bears never had the lead in the 64-62 loss to the Mustangs.

Trailing 52-51 with five minutes left in the game, the Golden Bears would get multiple chances from offensive rebounds off of an Ashley Schuelke missed 3-pointer and a missed layup by Lauren Feddema. On the same possession following a jump ball late in the shot clock, redshirt freshman forward Lauren Wilson was fouled under the hoop. Wilson would end up missing both free throws, keeping the Mustangs in control. 

A couple of possessions later, senior guard Madison Gehloff would hit free throws to extend the Mustang lead to 54-51. Following a missed shot by Feddema, senior guard Hannah Parsley would make her only shot of the game which was a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 57-51. 

The Golden Bears would not go away though. Trailing 62-56, senior guard Ally Gietzel made two straight buckets to cut the lead down to two points. Following free throws by SMSU guard Bri Stoltzman, CSP forward Megan Gamble hit a layup to cut the lead to 64-62. Stoltzman would get trapped in the backcourt and travel giving CSP one last opportunity to tie. Gietzel missed a shot, but the Golden Bears kept possession out of bounds. Junior center Lindsey Becher would get the final opportunity missing the buzzer-beating jumper off the inbounds play to end the game. 

The Golden Bears trailed 33-23 after the first half of play, with SMSU outscoring CSP 14-0 on turnovers in the first half. After trailing 40-29 with 7:18 to play in the third quarter, Concordia went on a 13-2 run which was capped off by an and-1 layup by Feddema to tie the game at 42-42. The Golden Bears held the Mustangs scoreless for 4:19 in the third quarter. 

Stoltzman would make the next four points to give the Mustangs a little bit of the momentum back. Becher hit a shot to cut the lead to two points at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Gietzel hit the 3-pointer to bring the lead down to 52-51. After that shot, both teams were scoreless for 2:58 before Gehloff's free throws. There were multiple times when both teams found it hard to score in the second half.

Concordia-St. Paul was led by Gietzel with 27 points, seven rebounds and three steals. She went 11-18 from the field, which was the most field goals she's made and attempted all season. Gietzel finished 4-4 from the free throw line. She played all 40 minutes in the game and this was her second-highest scoring total of the season.

Gamble finished with eight points shooting 3-7 from the field. Junior guard Mikayla Kanenwisher had five points and six rebounds with a team-high three assists. Feddema finished with seven points and four rebounds. Sophomore guard Leah Dengerud also scored seven points with four rebounds. Becher finished with six points. 

The Mustangs were led by Stoltzman scoring 26 points shooting 10-19 on field goals. Gehloff scored 12 points with a team-high seven rebounds. Parsley scored seven points shooting 4-4 from the free throw line. 

SMSU shot 16-16 from the free throw line which was better than the Golden Bears at 10-16. The Mustangs shot 6-23 from behind the arc making four more 3-pointers than CSP's 2-8 from behind the arc. SMSU had 20 fouls compared to CSP's 13. Concordia shot 25-62 from the field and SMSU shot 21-59. 

The Golden Bears outscored Southwest Minnesota State in the paint 44-20 and 12-2 on second-chance points. SMSU ended up winning the battle of points off of turnovers at 16-9 with 14 of those coming in the first half.

Concordia-St. Paul is back in action on Saturday against Sioux Falls (3-5, 1-3 NSIC). Sioux Falls lost on Friday night to No. 19 Minnesota Duluth (7-1, 4-0 NSIC), 77-50. Tip-off against the Cougars is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Stewart Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.