ST. PAUL, Minn. – Anika Whiting scored a game-high 17 points to lead Concordia-St. Paul to a 59-51 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women's basketball on Friday night.

CU (10-14, 7-11 NSIC) forced SMSU into 24 turnovers and held a 22-11 scoring advantage in points off of turnovers.

SMSU (5-17, 4-14 NSIC), which suffered its 10th straight loss, was led by Abby Kenealy who finished with 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting.  Bree Holleman, Taylor Voss and Jessie Watts all finished with eight points, with Voss and Watts each finishing with a team-high five rebounds. 

SMSU finished the game shooting 34 percent (16 of 47) from the field, but connected on 7 of 10 3-pointers and held a 40-32 rebound advantage, but the turnovers proved too costly to overcome.

The Mustangs, who trailed 24-23 at halftime, started the second half strong and built a 34-28 lead with 16 minutes and 24 seconds left following a 3-pointer by Holleman.

The lead would extend to 35-28 a minute later before the Golden Bears rallied with a 15-2 over the next five minutes to take a 43-37 lead with 10:47 left in the game and never trailed again.

A pair of Watts free throws with 8:39 remaining cut the deficit to 43-41, but that was as close as SMSU would come as CU closed out the game with clutch shooting.

SMSU failed to score a field goal from the 13:41 mark of the second half until Watts hit a jumper with 4:40 left in the game.

Both teams struggled with shooting in the opening half, with SMSU shooting just 28.6 percent (8 of 26) from the field, while CU shot 29.6 percent (8 of 27).  CU built an early five-point advantage before SMSU slowing cut into the lead and took its largest lead of the half at 22-16 with 3:46 remaining following a 3-pointer by Hope Bonlander and a field goal by Kenealy.

The Golden Bears answered and closed out the first half on an 8-1 run to take a 24-23 halftime lead. 

Kenealy and Voss led SMSU in the opening half with six points apiece, with Voss connecting on a pair of 3-pointers. 

Southwest Minnesota State continues action tomorrow at St. Cloud State with tip-off slated for 4 p.m.