Defensive Effort Not Enough In Road Matchup

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -  The Concordia University women's basketball team (13-9, 5-7 NSIC) held the NSIC's best three-point shooting team to only 1-of-15 shots from long range on Friday evening.  Their efforts fell short in the final minutes of the game, however, as Augustana College (15-4, 9-3 NSIC) reclaimed the lead and topped Concordia 69-63.  The Golden Bears play at Wayne State tomorrow evening in continued road play. Concordia steadily worked their way to a five point, 56-51 lead late in the second period.  After working hard on defense all night to keep the Vikings, who lead the NSIC in three-point shots made per game, to only a single three-pointer, the Golden Bears looked to continue to stymie Augustana in the final seven minutes to take the win. The Vikings flipped things around in the final minutes, however, as CU scored only a single free throw from the 7:18 mark to the 0:33 mark.  This gave Augustana enough time to reverse the scoring margin and go up by five points.  The Vikings were able to go away from their leading scorers down the stretch and receive points from a number of players to take back the lead. The Golden Bears played with the Vikings the entire game, with the largest Augustana lead coming at the tail end of the game at six points.  Concordia had an eight point lead at the mid-point of the first half before the Vikings managed to tie the game by halftime. Rebounding was a huge reason for Augustana hanging on for the win.  They stayed in the game by not allowing Concordia second chances on their misses, giving up only five second chance points all game.  The Vikings finished the matchup with a 48-39 lead on the glass.  Augustana also scored nearly twice as many points as the Golden Bears in the paint (40-22). Although Augustana lays claim to the nation's 14th best shot blocker, tonight Concordia junior Shandrell Duncan was the star of rejections.  Duncan swatted away five shots on the evening, the team finishing with seven blocked shots. Concordia's leading scorer, however, was once again forward Candace Olstad, who topped the team with 19 points.  Zoraa Quoie added 17 points and had another huge passing game, dishing eight assists.  Finally, Jamie Jones ended up in double figures with 12 points.  She also tied a career high with seven rebounds.  Olstad had a team high eight boards.  No other player on the team scored more than five points.  The squad shot 35.5% from the field. Leading the way to the Augustana win was Megan Doyle with 12 points, 12 of which came from free throws.  Amy Puthoff had a ten point, 12 rebound double-double, while Whitney Hofer had 15 points and eight boards.  The Vikings finished with a 35.0% field goal average, including their 1-for-15, 6.7% shooting performance from the distance.  They were effective from the free throw line, however, sinking 26 shots at 72.2%.