MOORHEAD, Minn. - Lindsey Becher put up a double-double and Leah Dengerud was the hero in a 65-57 overtime victory for the Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (12-5, 8-4 NSIC) against MSU Moorhead (6-11, 6-6 NSIC). Trailing 50-47 late in the contest, Dengerud hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 7.4 seconds left to tie the game at 50-50 and send it into overtime.
After the Dragons scored the first point in overtime, Becher made quick work putting in a layup to reclaim the lead for the Golden Bears. A few possessions later, senior guard Ally Gietzel hit her only 3-pointer of the game to give CSP a four-point lead. The Golden Bears maintained the lead from there as MSU Moorhead went 0-8 from the field in the overtime period. CSP outscored MSU Moorhead 15-7 in overtime.
Shooting struggles were consistent for both teams as they shot a combined 33.1% from the field. CSP finished 23-69 from the field, but shot 7-22 from behind the 3-point line. MSU Moorhead finished 18-65 going 3-20 from behind the arc. Despite the bad shooting from the field, both teams made the most of their trips at the free throw line. MSU Moorhead went 18-22 and Concordia-St. Paul went 12-15 from the charity stripe.
Becher finished with her second double-double of the season putting up 19 points and 10 rebounds. Her last double-double was against Minot State on Jan. 5. She also tallied three blocks and is now one short of 200 in her career.
Gietzel scored 16 points with eight coming in overtime. Despite going 3-15 from the field, she was able to get a majority of her work done from the free throw line finishing 9-11. She also grabbed five rebounds and led the team in steals with three. Dengerud tallied 11 points shooting 3-7 from behind the arc.
The game featured many back-and-forth runs throughout it with no team ever taking a clear advantage. After getting 3-pointers from Dengerud and Mikayla Kanenwisher in the first quarter, the Dragons went on an 8-0 run to end the quarter to take a 14-10 lead after the first 10 minutes.
MSU Moorhead controlled much of the second quarter, but was only able to ever get a largest lead of five points. Trailing 23-18 with 1:47 to go, freshman guard Ashley Schuelke made her lone shot of the day on a backdoor cut. Redshirt freshman forward Lauren Wilson followed it up on the following possession with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 23-23 going into halftime.
The end of the third quarter was highlighted by a fast break and-1 layup by Gietzel. After hitting the free throw, Wilson hit another 3-pointer to give the Golden Bears a five-point lead. MSU Moorhead cut the lead to 34-32 at the end of the quarter with its first 3-pointer of the game after starting 0-11 from behind the arc.
The Golden Bears maintained the lead throughout the fourth quarter until MSU Moorhead's Karlee Fisher tied the game at 42-42 with 3:28 left. Natalie Jens hit free throws to give the Dragons their first lead since 8:13 in the third quarter at 45-44. Becher made a layup to reclaim the lead with 1:05 left.
MSU Moorhead followed up Becher's layup with its third 3-pointer of the game to take a 48-46 lead. Gietzel drew a foul on the following possession but went 1-2 from the line after missing the first free throw. The Dragons extended the lead to 50-47 on the following possession after making free throws.
Kanenwisher tallied seven points and tied the team lead with five assists for CSP. Junior forward Megan Gamble didn't score in the game, but finished with a tied team-high five assists as well. She also grabbed seven rebounds. Wilson finished with eight points and eight rebounds for the Golden Bears.
The Dragons were led by Jens with 15 points, a majority of them coming from the free throw line as she went 8-9 from the charity stripe. Fisher had 13 points for the Dragons shooting 5-10 from the field off the bench.
Both teams were fairly even in most statistical categories. Each team had 49 rebounds and MSU Moorhead had slightly more turnovers than CSP at 14-11. CSP held an advantage scoring off of turnovers at 13-8 and in the paint at 28-22. MSU Moorhead's bench outscored Concordia's bench 23-12. There were eight lead changes and eight ties in the game. CSP had the lead for 23:37 in the contest compared to MSU Moohead having the lead for 12:32.
The Golden Bears are now tied for fourth place in the NSIC standings with UMary following the Marauders' loss to Minnesota State on Saturday. Minnesota State still leads the conference race with one loss. Northern State and Southwest Minnesota State are tied for second place with two conference losses.
The Golden Bears return home this upcoming weekend hosting Bemidji State (3-13, 0-12 NSIC) on Friday, Jan. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the Gangelhoff Center. Concordia-St. Paul will then welcome in Minnesota Crookston (9-9, 6-6 NSIC) on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 3:30 p.m.
