Sioux Falls, S.D. - Lindsey Becher was unable to convert on a shot at the buzzer through contact in the paint as Concordia-St. Paul (16-6, 12-5 NSIC) fell to Augustana (6-14, 5-11 NSIC) by a score of 61-60 on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Bear women used a 6-0 run to get the deficit down to one point, but could not convert on their last two possessions on shots from Lauren Wilson and Becher.
Concordia-St. Paul used steals by Wilson and Becher followed by quick buckets from each of them to cut the lead down to 61-58. A jump shot inside the arc by Leah Dengerud with 1:45 left cut the lead down to one point. In the last 9:10, Augustana went 1-9 from the field with six turnovers. The Vikings maintained the lead by going 7-7 from the free throw line in that stretch. CSP scored all 13 of its fourth-quarter points in that 9:10 timeframe.
Augustana's first big run of the day came in the first quarter, as they used an 8-0 run to take an opening 19-12 lead. Augustana took seven more shots, which led to four more made field goals than CSP in the opening 10 minutes of play.
Trailing 29-20 in the second quarter, Concordia started a 17-0 run to take an eight-point lead, which was its largest of the game. This was aided by Concordia-St. Paul shooting 5-5 to start the second half. The Golden Bears held Augustana scoreless for 7:36 and 0-13 from the field during this stretch.
With CSP's lead at 40-33, the Vikings found their stride again as Augustana went 3-3 to tie the game at 40-40. The Vikings then shot 3-5 in the last 3:18 of the third quarter to take a 50-47 lead heading to the fourth.
The Golden Bears were led by Wilson scoring 20 points making this her fourth 20+ point game of the season. She finished with five rebounds and a team-high three steals. Wilson also shot 7-7 from the free throw line. Becher scored 12 points with six rebounds.
Mikayla Kanenwisher finished with 10 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal. The junior guard was all over the floor this afternoon playing a team-high 37:22 in the contest. She also went 2-3 from behind the arc, which was the most 3-pointers by any CSP player.
Dengerud finished with eight points shooting 3-4 from the free throw line. Megan Gamble scored six points with five rebounds and Lauren Feddema added four points of her own.
The Vikings were led by Lauren Sees with 15 points and seven rebounds. Michaela Jewett almost had a double-double finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds. Augustana went 12-13 from the free throw line compared to 14-19 by Concordia.
Both teams turned the ball over 13 times, but the Vikings outscored CSP off of turnovers 21-18. Augie held a slight advantage in the paint 22-20 and its bench outscored CSP's 11-4. There were six lead changes and six ties in the game.
The Vikings shot 21-61 (34.4%) from the field and 7-24 (29.2%) from behind the arc while Concordia-St. Paul shot 20-54 (37.0%) from the field and 6-15 (40.0%) from behind the arc. Augustana outrebounded Concordia-St. Paul 37-35.
With the loss, Concordia-St. Paul drops to fourth place in conference play one game back of Southwest Minnesota State and UMary. Northern State lost its third straight game on Saturday to drop to an 11-5 NSIC record.
The Golden Bears will be at home next weekend in the Gangelhoff Center as they will play Sioux Falls (7-13, 5-11 NSIC) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m (14-8, 12-4 NSIC).
