ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (19-7, 15-6 NSIC) is playing St. Cloud State (17-7, 14-6 NSIC) in the final home game of the regular season. The Golden Bears will be honoring seniors Ally Gietzel and Jalyn Shaw for Senior Night. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in the Gangelhoff Center.
BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE – AVOID THE LINE!
Fans are encouraged to buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! New for 2023, Concordia will be a cashless ticket experience for fans, so if you don't purchase ahead, make sure to bring your card to make your purchase at the gate.
Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service, while faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. CSP students will have their all-sport season passes sent directly to their csp.edu email address.
Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets. BUY ONLINE
WATCH HOME GAMES ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC basketball games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, and supported by BlueFrame Technology.
Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
All home games will feature the play-by-play broadcasting provided by Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears for over a decade. The St. Paul, Minnesota native studied broadcasting at Fordham University (N.Y.) where he was the voice of the Rams' football and basketball teams in the NCAA Division I Patriot League.
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears picked up a pair of victories against UMary (18-10, 14-6 NSIC) and Minot State (9-20, 6-14 NSIC) over the past weekend. Concordia-St. Paul held its opponents to a combined 31.8% shooting from the field.
UMary turned the ball over 26 times which was the highest of any opponent CSP has faced this season. The Golden Bears used this to their advantage outscoring UMary 17-7 off of turnovers to win the game by a score of 53-46.
Redshirt freshman forward Lauren Wilson scored 14 points to lead the Golden Bears. She made a team-high two 3-pointers shooting 4-8 from the field. Wilson added six rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal to her totals.
Junior center Lindsey Becher finished with 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and three assists. Sophomore guards Leah Dengerud and Lauren Feddema scored nine and seven points respectively. Gietzel finished with seven points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Concordia-St. Paul held Minot State 0-10 from behind the arc to get a 55-41 win against the Beavers on Saturday. After the Beavers scored the opening basket of the game, CSP went on a 10-0 run to take an opening advantage. The Golden Bears used another 9-0 run in the second quarter to extend that advantage to 15 points.
Becher led the Golden Bears scoring 16 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Feddema scored 10 points with four rebounds. Junior forward Megan Gamble scored eight points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Wilson tallied eight points and grabbed six rebounds.
SEASON LEADERS
Gietzel leads the Golden Bears in scoring averages at 16.2 points per game. The senior returned to action this weekend for the first time since she suffered an injury against Bemidji State on Jan. 26. She is fifth in the NSIC in points per game. Her average of 6.8 rebounds per game is 10th in the conference. Gietzel is also averaging 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Becher is tied for the NSIC lead in blocks per game averaging 2.3. She's 13th in the conference in scoring averaging 13.5 points per game. Becher's averaging 6.2 rebounds per game which is 14th in the conference.
Wilson's 12.8 points per game is tied for 17th in the NSIC. She's averaging 5.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Junior guard Mikayla Kanenwisher leads the Golden Bears in assists averaging 3.3 per game which is tied for fourth in the conference.
Concordia-St. Paul has the second-best defense in the NSIC giving up an average of 58.7 points per game. The Golden Bears have the sixth-best offense scoring 66 points per game which gives them the second-best margin in the NSIC at +7.4. CSP is holding teams to the lowest field goal percentage in the NSIC at 36.0% shooting from the field. The team leads the conference in blocked shots averaging 5.65 per game.
IN THE NSIC STANDINGS
The Golden Bears go into the last weekend of the season in third place with a half-game lead on three teams tied for fourth place. St. Cloud State, UMary and Southwest Minnesota State all enter the weekend with 14-6 conference records. The top four seeds in the conference receive first-round byes in the NSIC Tournament.
Minnesota State has already clinched the regular season conference championship with an 18-2 record. Second-place Northern State upset the Mavericks this past weekend with a 92-87 victory to improve to 15-5 in conference play.
Northern State, St. Cloud State, UMary and Southwest Minnesota State all play two games this weekend, whereas CSP only plays one game. St. Cloud State has the toughest schedule of the four teams playing seventh-place Minnesota Duluth (16-9, 13-8 NSIC) this weekend before its contest against the Golden Bears on Saturday. Northern State, UMary and Southwest Minnesota State all face opponents in the bottom half of the conference.
ST CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
Series History: Concordia-St. Paul 18, St. Cloud State 21
Before winning the matchup earlier this season, the Golden Bears had lost four straight games to the Huskies. CSP is 5-5 in the last 10 matchups against St. Cloud State. The Golden Bears are 8-5 all-time at home against the Huskies.
LAST MEETING WITH THE HUSKIES
Concordia-St. Paul picked up a 64-55 Wednesday night victory against St. Cloud State earlier this season on Jan. 10. Gietzel put up her third-highest point total of the season scoring 25 and shooting 9-14 from the field. She also tied the team lead with seven rebounds and played all 40 minutes in the contest.
CSP shot 48.1% from the field in the contest. Trailing 28-25 in the second quarter, CSP went on an 8-0 run which ended with a 3-pointer by Gamble to end the first half. Concordia extended that run to 16-2 in the second half to take a 41-35 lead.
The Huskies rallied and came back to cut the lead down to two points on two separate occasions in the fourth quarter. Gietzel responded each time, as she made two key shots and went 6-6 from the free throw line to fend off the St. Cloud State comeback.
Wilson scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds. Gamble finished with nine points, three rebounds and two blocks. Becher scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds.
St. Cloud State was led by sophomore guard Jada Eggebrecht with 16 points and five rebounds. Sophomore forward Ashley Sawicki scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds. CSP held slight advantages in the paint 30-26 and outrebounded SCSU 34-30.
ABOUT THE HUSKIES
St. Cloud State enters the weekend on an NSIC-best seven-game winning streak. The Huskies' last loss was to Minnesota State on Jan. 26. St. Cloud State has picked up victories against Northern State, UMary and Southwest Minnesota State during this stretch.
Eggebrect leads the Huskies averaging 12.2 points per game. That is tied for 20th in the NSIC. She shoots 88.1% from the free throw line and is averaging 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists.
Sawicki leads SCSU in rebounds averaging 7.0 per game putting her in seventh place in the conference. She's scoring 10.8 points per game and leads the team in blocks averaging 1.3 per game.
Seniors Morgan Draheim and Dru Henning are tied for the team lead in assists averaging 2.6 per game. Draheim averages 8.1 points per game and Henning averages 6.2 points per game. Senior forward Jasmine Litt averages 6.6 points per game for the Huskies.
St. Cloud State has the best scoring defense in the NSIC giving up an average of 57.1 points per game. They have the ninth-best scoring offense in the conference averaging 63.2 points per game. The +6.1 margin is tied for the fifth-best in the NSIC.
The Huskies have an advantage from behind the arc with the second-best 3-point percentage in the NSIC at 33.8% and defensively holding teams to 27.5% which is third in the conference. St. Cloud State has the second-most steals in the NSIC averaging 8.96 per game. They have the second-best turnover margin at +2.54.
The Huskies are led by head coach Lori Fish who is in her 16th season with the program. She has the second most wins in program history. Fish has four NCAA Tournament appearances and has won the NSIC Championship three times. She has a record of 261-170 as the head coach of SCSU.
