WINONA, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (13-13, 10-12 NSIC) took the loss on Saturday afternoon, 73-53, to Winona State (11-17, 5-17 NSIC) in their final game of the 2022-23 regular season. 

Jalyn Shaw opened the scoring in the game with a 3-pointer on an assist from Ally Gietzel, but the first quarter would be all Warriors from then on. WSU would go on a 20-4 run the rest of the quarter that would see them hit four 3-pointers, including two by Caitlin Reilly to close it out with Winona State on top 20-7. Concordia struggled after Shaw's 3-pointer, combining to go 1-of-12 from the field and 0-of-4 from 3-point range. 

The second quarter was much of the same with the Golden Bears getting points on the board first, this time on a 3-pointer from Sarah Kuma, before WSU shots started to fall. Winona State put together a 12-2 run, capped off by another 3-pointer by Reilly to push their lead to 20. Reilly hit one more three pointer to wrap up the Warriors scoring in the second quarter to finish the half with 12 points and help her team control a 22 point halftime lead, 42-20.

The beginning of the second half matched the scripts of the first two quarter, with Ally Gietzel and Megan Gamble getting layups to take the first four points of the quarter, before a 13-0 run by WSU to build their lead to 31. Concordia would finish the quarter strong, getting 3-pointers from Sarah Kuma and Raegen Alexander to score eight of the last ten points in the third.

A 7-2 run by the Golden Bears to start the fourth, spearheaded by Gietzel, would bring them back to within 20 points. That was all the ground CSP could make up as Winona continued to answer every Concordia basket and keep their margin of victory at 20, as they went on to win 73-53.

Sarah Kuma was the top scorer for CSP, putting up 18 points while shooting 50-percent from beyond the arc (4-of-8) and 6-of-6 from the foul line. The sophomore guard added three rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

Concordia wing Ally Gietzel finished off her impressive regular season with 17 points, four rebounds, an assist and block while knocking down all nine of her shots from the charity stripe.

Senior guard Lauren Fech was Winona's player of the game, scoring 16 points while nearly picking up a double-double with nine rebounds and four assists.

As a team Concordia shot 24.2-percent from the field (16-of-66), 24-percent from behind the arc (6-of-25), and were a perfect 14-14 from the foul line. Winona State was 27-of-52 from the field (51.9-percent), including 12-of-21 from 3-point range (57.1-percent), and was 7-of-10 from the foul line. Winona State out-rebounded the Bears 40-27 and out-scored them 28-18 in the paint. CSP's defense did force the Warriors into 15 giveaways and were able to turn that into a 14-6 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Golden Bears are headed to the NSIC Tournament for the eleventh straight season and will take on MSU Moorhead on the road in the opening round on Wednesday February 22.