ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State women's basketball team used a trio of scorers and perimeter defense to defeat the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears 67-59 on Saturday night inside the Gangelhoff Center.
 
Bri Stoltzman led the Mustangs with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, holding team-highs with eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Jenna Borchers scored 16 points, knocking down 4 of 6 from deep, and Madison Gehloff scored 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting while grabbing five rebounds. Hannah Parsley scored six points, adding four rebounds and two steals, while Sam Wall added six points, knocking down all four free-throws. 
 
SMSU moves to 14-9 overall and 11-7 in the NSIC, while CSP falls to 11-11 overall and 8-10 NSIC.
 
The win was the first Mustang victory over CSP in St. Paul since the 2001-02 season. 
 
SMSU shot 42.9 percent (24 of 56) from the field and made a season-low four three pointers on 16 attempts while knocking down 15 of 18 free throws. CSP shot 43.9 percent (25 of 57) from the field, 2 of 14 from three, and 7 of 11 from the free throw line. 
 
The Mustangs defense swarmed the Golden Bears, forcing 15 turnovers while only committing eight of their own. They turned that into an 18-9 advantage in points off turnovers. 
 
The two squads opened the first six-plus minutes splitting 16 points before a Borchers three-pointer put SMSU up 11-8 with 3:44 left in the first quarter. 
 
After CSP inched ahead 14-13 with 1:20 to play, The Mustangs scored three points on a free throw and a jumper, but a CSP jumper with 30 seconds left evened the game at 16-16. 
 
Borchers would hit another three just before time expired to give the Mustangs a 19-16 lead after a quarter of action. 
 
A slow start to the second quarter saw SMSU grow its lead to 26-20 with 3:46 remaining in the half. That six-point lead turned into a five-point lead with 1:01 to play in the half, but a pair of Kenzie Jones free throws and a Gehloff jumper as time expired gave SMSU a 35-26 advantage into the half. 
 
The Mustangs shot 48.3 percent (14 of 29) in the first half. After allowing CSP to shoot 61.5 percent (8 of 13) in the first quarter, the defense picked up, limiting the Golden Bears to 26.7 percent (4 of 15) in the second quarter. 
 
The teams were nearly identical in the third quarter, as both shot 7 of 14 from the field, SMSU shot 0 of 3 from three and CSP shot 1 of 3 from three. The Mustangs knocked down a pair of free throws, proving to be the difference in a third quarter that put the Mustangs ahead 51-41 into the fourth quarter. 
 
CSP opened the fourth with a 9-0 run, inching within one at 51-50 with 7:08 remaining.
 
Stoltzman attempted to stop the bleeding, getting into the paint and drilling a jumper to grow the lead back to three, but an offensive rebound on the other end led to a CSP layup, making the score 53-52 in favor of the Mustangs with 5:40 to play.
 
SMSU squashed any momentum in favor of the Golden Bears from there, scoring seven of the next eight points to take a 60-53 lead with 1:11 to go, and after a CSP layup, scored 7 of the final 11 points to close out the victory. 
 
 
The Mustangs return home next Friday, welcoming Upper Iowa to the R/A Facility at 7:30 p.m.