ST.JOSEPH, Mo. — The no. 11 Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team fell in its season opener 84-78 to no. 9 Fort Hays State on the road in St. Joseph, Missouri on Friday night. Lauren Wilson led the way for the Golden Bears with a 34 point, 14 rebound double-double, shooting 10-for-22 from the floor. 

Senior shooting guard Lydia Haack put together a strong second half, with 18 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists on the night while going 6-16 from the floor. Leah Dengerud also tallied double digit points, putting 11 on the score sheet in the loss. 

The Tigers grabbed an early 18-6 lead midway through the first quarter. CSP found themselves down 25-8 at the end of one quarter of play. 

Avery Moeller knocked down a three point jumper to open the second period of play and get the Golden Bears back into it. With Fort Hays holding a 45-31 advantage at the half. 

Lydia Haack cut the deficit to 10 on a three ball with 1:46 to play in the third quarter. Lauren Wilson drew a foul and hit both attempts from the charity stripe to get CSP back within single digits, 64-56. 

Wilson came up with another big bucket early in the fourth, driving the lane and finishing to make it a seven point game with nine minutes to play. 

Leah Dengerud came up with a big fastbreak three down the stretch to make it a five point game with 31 seconds to play. The Golden Bears couldn't quite narrow the gap however as Fort Hays went on to win, 84-78. 

As a team CSP went 26-72 (36.1%) from the field, including a 50% mark in the second quarter and 46% in the fourth. As a team the Golden Bear hit on 76% of their attempts from the charity stripe. 

In her CSP debut Avery Moeller went 3-for-6 from the field including 2-for-5 from three, recording 8 points off the bench. 

On defense the Golden Bears pressed forcing 20 Fort Hays turnovers and coming away with 13 steals. In total Concordia came away with 23 points off turnovers to Fort Hays' 9. 

CSP is back in action tomorrow afternoon for the final day of the Central Region Preview in St. Joseph. The Golden Bears will take on Missouri Western at Civic Arena, tip-off is set for 6 p.m.