Jan. 6th, 2007 -St. Paul, MN	1st	2nd	Final	Records
#12 Northern State	33	34	67	11-4, 4-2 NSIC
Concordia-St. Paul	38	34	72	7-7, 4-1 NSIC

 

Northern Struggles On Road, Falls To Bears

January 6, 2007
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Northern State women’s basketball team (11-4, 4-2 NSIC) dropped their second straight NSIC game of the weekend, this time giving up a 72-67 decision to Concordia-St. Paul (8-7, 5-1 NSIC) at the Gangelhoff Center. The Wolves have lost three of their last four games in recent weeks, with all three losses coming on the road.

The Wolves opened the game with a 10-2 run before allowing the Golden Bears to catch up and tie the game at 12-12. Northern maintained the scoring edge until the 8 minute mark, when the Bears combined outside long range shots and inside buckets from Amanda Behnke, going up by as many as nine points and taking the lead for what would be the remainder of the game. The home team led 38-33 at half.

The teams had similar shooting performances in the first half, with Northern connecting on 11-of-25 shots for 44.0% and Concordia hitting 13-of-29 for 44.8%. The Wolves out-rebounded CSP 16-15.

Concordia’s Kelly Lund lit up the second half with three straight three-pointers to keep the Bears in the lead in the opening minutes of the final period. With players down low being double- and triple-teamed, NSU looked to chip away at the margin with outside shots themselves. With five minutes to play in the game, the Wolves had some ground to make up as the Bears led 63-55.

Melissa Braaten got the Wolves back to within four points with a long shot at the three minute mark only to be answered by a Bears three-pointer and a free throw, pushing the score to 68-60. Miranda Boepple kept the game interesting, heading to the charity stripe for three shots not once, but twice, sinking 5 of the 6 shots to narrow the score to 70-67 with just over a minute to play. The Wolves were unable to get the ball through the hoop in their last two possessions and the Bears took the win 72-67.

With her third double-double of the year, senior Boepple (Dickinson, ND) led the Wolves with 12 points and 11 rebounds, hitting 9-of-10 shots from the charity stripe. Braaten (Stillwater, MN) added 11 points while Carolin Becker (Beulah, ND) and Noelle Hall (Altura, MN) led the team with five rebounds each. The Wolves shot 36.5% from the field (11-25) and gave up a 32-35 rebounding edge.

CSP’s Behnke was the leading scorer of the night with 14 points. Kali Olstad had 12 points and Kelly Lund had 11 to wrap up the Bears’ double figure scoring list. Concordia shot 46.2% from the field on 24-of-52 shooting and sunk 12 three-pointers in the game.

After a series of difficult road games, the Wolves will return to Wachs Arena for five straight home games, hosting MN-Crookston and Bemidji State next weekend.

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