Box Score
ST. PAUL, MINN. – Concordia University continued its recent dominance over Southwest Minnesota State extending its winning streak to 10 straight in the series in earning a hard-fought 60-55 victory on Saturday night in St. Paul.
CU has now won 16 of the last 17 games in the series with SMSU.
Concordia improves to 13-6 (5-4 NSIC), while Southwest Minnesota State drops to 10-9 (2-7 NSIC).
The game featured seven lead changes and four ties.
Turnovers once again proved to the difference for the Mustangs as they committed 20 turnovers including committing two crucial ones late in the game. SMSU turned the ball over a season-high 25 times in Friday night's loss to St. Cloud State. SMSU entered the weekend averaging just 13.8 per game.
SMSU opened the game with strong defense limiting the CU to just 3 of 13 shooting in the first 10 minutes. SMSU built an 11-point 14-3 lead with 11:43 left in the opening half on a Taylor Voss jumper, before the Golden Bears rallied to pull within 14-8 lead with 10:16 left in the half.
The Mustangs continued their fine defense and answered back with their own run scoring five straight points to push the lead to 19-8 with 5:57 remaining. SMSU then went cold and the CU offense heated up scoring 10 straight points to trim the Mustang lead to 19-18 at the 3:21 mark, before SMSU's Laura Kramer ended the CU run with a basket at the 3:07.
The Golden Bears answered back with five straight points to take their first lead of the game at 23-21 with 1:53 remaining and took a 23-22 lead into halftime.
Both squads shot poorly in the opening half as SMSU was just 10 of 29 from the field (34.5), while CU made just six of 26 shots (23.1), but three were three-pointers and CU made eight of 11 free throws.
Kramer scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds in the first half while also recording two steals, one blocked shot and one assist.
SMSU opened the second half strong building a 31-26 lead in the opening minutes, but CU fought back once again and took a four-point, 37-33 lead with 13 minutes left, but SMSU's Annie Smith drilled a three-pointer to trim the lead to 37-36 with 12:39 remaining.
The Mustangs tied the score at 42-42 on a Kramer basket with 9:42 on the clock and regained the lead at 43-42 with 9:07 left on a Megan Stadler free throw. CU retook the lead just moments later before SMSU came back to take the lead with 7:10 remaining on a field goal by Sara Leidall, who was also fouled and made the free throw to give the Mustangs at 46-44 lead.
Concordia took another lead just minutes later before Stadler scored on a fast break lay-up with just over five minutes left to tie the score at 48-48, before CU's Kali Olstad answered back with a three-pointer to make it 51-48 with five minutes.
CU would score on three of its next four possessions to build a 58-53 lead before Kramer drilled a 12-foot jumper in the lane to cut the deficit to 58-55 with 2:02 on the clock.
SMSU had two chances to either cut the lead to one or tie it, but SMSU was called for an offensive foul and then a travel on back-to-back possessions and the Mustangs were never able to recover as CU connected on free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Kramer had a career night for SMSU as she poured in a career-high 18 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for her second double-double in the past three games. Leidall was the only other Mustang in double figures with 10 points.
SMSU shot 20 of 60 (33.3) from the field, including just 4 of 15 (26.7) from three-point range.
Zoraa Quoie led CU with 11 points, six assists and three steals.
Southwest Minnesota State will return home next weekend for a pair of NSIC games at the R/A Facility. SMSU will host Augustana on Friday, Jan. 23, before hosting Wayne State on Saturday, Jan. 24 for Hawaiian Night.
