Box Score

ST. PAUL, MINN.:  The Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs were within two points, 45-43, with eight minutes remaining but Concordia St. Paul went on a 17-1 run to earn a 66-50 victory on Saturday evening in St. Paul, Minn.

SMSU, the No. 8 seed in the tournament, finishes the season with a 12-16 overall record while the top-seded and No. 8 nationally-ranked Concordia St. Paul improves to 26-2 overall.  CSP will advance to the NSIC tournament semifinals to play MSU Moorhead in St. Paul.

The Mustangs finished the game shooting 28.8 percent from the field while Concordia had a 38.8 shooting percentage.  Concordia however was 24 of 31 (77.4%) from the free-throw line compared to the Mustangs 11 of 16 (68.8%).   The Golden Bears also outrebounded SMSU 47-29 in the contest.

Southwest Minnesota State trailed 31-24 at halftime after shooting 31 percent from the field, put together a late run to stay in the game as CSP held a nine point lead with 5:25 remaining in the first half but SMSU went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 25-21 with 2:43 to play in the first half.  The Mustang defense was strong in the first half as they held the Golden Bears to 4-of-24 shooting from the field for 16.7 percent in the first nine minutes of the contest.

SMSU's leading scorer was Sara Leidall with 19 points as she was 7-of-15 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range.  Freshman Laura Kramer added eight points while Liz Grider had six. 

Megan Stadler led the team with six assists while Grider had a team high six steals.  SMSU forced CSP to commit 26 turnovers.

Concordia was led by Candance Olstad's 17 points while Katie LaViolette added 15. Amanda Behnke grabbed 12 rebounds for the Golden Bears.

The Mustangs end the 2007-08 season with a 12-16 overall record.  The game was also the final collegiate game for SMSU's lone senior, Laura VanOverbeke.