ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Ally Gietzel tallied her seventh game of the season with 20 or more points in a 25-point performance on a Wednesday night victory against St. Cloud State (7-6, 4-5 NSIC). Concordia-St. Paul (11-4, 7-3 NSIC) shot 48.1% from the field to get its first win against the Huskies since 2019 by a score of 64-55. 

Trailing 28-25 in the second quarter, redshirt freshman forward Lauren Wilson made a layup to cut the St. Cloud State lead to one. Gietzel then hit a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to retake the lead for CSP. Junior forward Megan Gamble then hit another 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer to finish the 8-0 run. 28-25 was the last time CSP trailed in the contest. 

Concordia continued the run into the second half, getting it to a 16-2 run to extend the lead to 41-30. St. Cloud State wouldn't go away though, outscoring the Golden Bears 12-5 the rest of the quarter to trail by four going into the fourth. Both teams shot 6-15 in the quarter, which ended up being CSP's worst shooting quarter of the night. 

The Golden Bears remained headstrong on defense in the fourth quarter, holding the Huskies to 4-11 from the field. The Huskies were able to cut the CSP lead down to two points on two separate occasions, both of which were denied by Gietzel's scoring. She made two key field goals in the fourth quarter and went 6-6 from the line to fend off the St. Cloud State comeback. 

CSP started the game hot, scoring the first nine points of the contest with its largest lead coming at 16-5. The Golden Bears scored 20 points in the first quarter going 9-18 from the field. St. Cloud State got hot late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter to come back and take their first and only lead of the game. 

Along with the 25 points, Gietzel finished with a team-high seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. This was Gietzel's second time posting back-to-back 20-point performances this season. She shot 9-14 (64.3%) from the field and 100% from the free throw line playing a team-high 39:35 in the contest. 

Wilson finished with 12 points off the bench shooting 5-9 (55.6%) from the field. Gamble scored nine points and junior forward Lindsey Becher tallied eight points with seven rebounds. Junior guard Mikayla Kanenwisher finished with six points off of a team-high two 3-pointers. 

St. Cloud State was led by Jada Eggebrecht with 16 points and a team-high five rebounds. Ashley Sawicki and 12 points and four rebounds for the Huskies. 

Concordia-St. Paul held slight advantages in many statistical categories including outscoring the Huskies 30-26 in the paint. The Golden Bears outrebounded the Huskies 34-30 and had one less turnover than St. Cloud State. The Huskies held a slight advantage in points off of turnovers at 16-14 and bench points at 18-13. 

The Golden Bears shot 48.1% from the field compared to 38.2% by the Huskies. Both teams ended up making four 3-pointers, but CSP had five fewer attempts from behind the arc. This is the second loss of the season in Halenbeck Hall for St. Cloud State and its first NSIC loss at home this season. 

Concordia-St. Paul continues to be in a four-way tie for fifth place in the NSIC standings after being the only game played on Wednesday night. CSP is now off for over a week as the next contest for the team is at Northern State (10-4, 6-2 NSIC) in Aberdeen, South Dakota on Friday, Jan. 19. CSP will then take on MSU Moorhead (5-8, 5-3 NSIC) on Saturday, Jan. 20.