CROOKSTON, Minn. – The Bemidji State University women's basketball team played one of its best halves of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference basketball this season versus the University of Minnesota-Crookston Saturday at Lysaker Gymnasium. After the first 20 minutes of play, BSU and UMC were deadlocked at 38 points apiece and the Beavers had just wrapped up its best shooting performance in weeks going 13-of-25 from the floor (52.0), 3-of-8 from beyond the arc (37.5%) and 9-of 12 from the free-throw line (75.0%). But it was truly a tale of two haves tonight as the Beavers finished the night on the wrong side of a 82-67 decision.

It took the Golden Eagles just 6:29 into the second half to open a commanding 19-point lead (59-40), scoring 16 unanswered points to begin the stanza and outscoring BSU 21-2 during the first six-and-a-half minutes of play.

Casey Francis got UMC rolling netting seven of the Golden Eagles' first 10 points of the half. Katie Carlson added six points while Steph Mayclin hit two quick threes to total six points during the run.

Some teams may have given up at that point but BSU showed true heart battling back from 19 points down to reel UMC in to within 10 points (61-51) after an 11-2 scoring run of their own. But that would be as close as BSU would come as Minnesota-Crookston followed a 61 percent (13-21) first half shooting 53 percent (16-30) in the second to outlast the Beavers.

The Golden Eagles shot a staggering 59.1 percent from three-point land on the night, hitting 13-of-22 treys attempted while BSU doubled its season average for threes in a game with eight.

Sophomore Maggie Gernbacher (Bloomington, Minn.) paced the Beavers scoring 16 points on 5-of-13 from the floor and 4-of-10 from behind the three-point arc. Fellow sophomore Nancy McConkey (Superior, Wis.) and senior Allison Sanderberg (Duluth, Minn.) each poured in 11 points while McConkey's five rebounds was tops for BSU.

Kari Score helped UMC to a dominating 36-18 edge on the glass pulling down a game-high nine. She added 17 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting performance. Francis led all scorers with 22 points nailing a blistering 6-of-10 from three-point land.

BSU is now 3-16 on the season and 0-7 in NSIC play marking the first time since the 1981-82 season that the team has lost its first seven conference match-ups. The same two teams will be back in action one week from today (Feb. 5) changing venues to the BSU Gymnasium for a 6:00 p.m. start.