Bears Fail From Field, Fall To Wolves 62-53

Jan. 23– ST. PAUL, Minn. - The visiting Wolves of Northern State University dumped in 34 points in the paint and held the Golden Bears to just 29.4% shooting in a vital NSIC matchup on Friday night. The Wolves now improve to 6-4 in the league standings, while Concordia falls to 5-5. Concordia hosts the University of Mary tomorrow evening at the Gangelhoff Center with a tip-off time of 6:00 pm. Concordia University hit its first three-point shot of the evening, nailed by Zoraa Quoie at the 18:13 mark. It was a good start for the Golden Bears, who have seen cool shooting for the past few weeks. Two jumpers from Candace Olstad fell while the Wolves went scoreless for three minutes and CU took a 7-43 lead. From there, Mikayla Barondeau got Northern State's offense rolling and handed the lead back to the Wolves, 8-7 with five minutes played. Northern State used their screens well and also saw a number of backdoor cuts lead into easy layups. With 26 of their 34 first half points scored in the paint, it made sense that the Wolves' first half shooting percentage was set at 55.2%. Concordia, on the other hand, looked to gain shots from long range and suffered a much lower shooting average. They hit just 2-of-19 three-pointers in the first half and shot 22.9% overall from the field. The Wolves went on a lengthy scoring streak toward the end of the first half, receiving numerous field goals from forward Barondeau and 6-6 center Krista Rabenberg. They tallied 16 unanswered points to take their largest lead of the game, 32-15 with 3:44 to play. The Golden Bears improved their shooting in the second half and picked up their defensive awareness to slowly scratch their way back into the game. Olstad hit a two-point field goal, a three-pointer and a set of free throws to help the CU cause, but Barondeau answered for the Wolves to keep the margin at double figures for much of the second period. The Golden Bears received scoring power from Quoie and had Gillian Bjerke step up to match Northern State's inside presence late in the game. Quoie scored five points, followed by two buckets in the paint and a set of free throws from Bjerke that brought the score to 50-43 at the 5:23 mark. Quoie's quickness then brought a steal on the far sideline and the resulting fast break bucket brought Concordia to within five points, 50-45. With the momentum and five minutes left to play, the Golden Bears aimed to take a win to un-split the NSIC tie. Their shooting from the field once again turned cold, however, while Barondeau made six trips to the free throw line to keep her team ahead. The Golden Bears gave up the 62-53 decision. Olstad shot 6-of-13 from the field and led the Golden Bears with 17 points. Quoie added 12 points and had five assists and three steals. Leading the fight on the boards was Bjerke with ten rebounds to go with nine points. The team finished with a 29.4% shooting average and 40 rebounds. They had nine steals. Barondeau was 8-of-12 from the field and a perfect 10-of-10 from the charity stripe to finish with a career high 26 points. She added 12 rebounds for a double-double and also had three steals. Rabenberg also had a double-double on the night, putting in 12 points and grabbing 11 boards. She had four blocked shots. The Wolves shot 41.5% from the field and out-rebounded CU with 45 boards.