February 5, 2005

BEMIDJI, Minn. – The University of Minnesota-Crookston women's basketball team out-scored Bemidji State 12-3 during the first 4:17 of the second half to erase a nine-point first half deficit. The Golden Eagles would creep into the lead for good just four minutes later claiming their sixth Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory of the season by downing BSU 73-67.

After finding itself down by as many as five points less than three minutes into the game, BSU looked outside the arc hitting six three-pointers during the next nine minutes to spark a 31-10 run en route to a 16-point first half lead. Sophomore guard Maggie Gernbacher (Bloomington, Minn.) led the team scoring nine of her game-high 12 first half points during the run.

Before the horn would sound on the first half UMC whittled the BSU lead to nine points (43-34).

The Beavers came out of the halftime break and were not able generate any kind of offensive flow. the team committed six turnovers during the first six minutes of the half while making just three of their first six shots. Meanwhile the Golden Eagles took advantage of the BSU miscues by converting them into 11 points helping to swing the momentum in their favor.

After falling behind (56-55) with 10:40 to go in the game, the Beavers trailed by as many as eight (67-59) but would close the gap to three points twice. Time would just not be on their side as UMC went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final 1:44 to hold BSU off and complete the seasonal series sweep with a 73-67 victory.

Gernbacher paced a trio of three BSU players who reached double-digit point total with 17. Senior Allison Sanderberg (Duluth, Minn.) added 12 points while sophomore Nancy McConkey (Superior, Wis.) recorded the first double-double of her career scoring 16 points and hauling in a career-best 15 boards.

BSU dominated the glass grabbing a season-high 47 rebounds to UMC's 33.

Steph Mayclin paced the Golden Eagles netting a game-high 19 points. Katie Carlson pitched in 17 points while Karna Plaine collected a team-high eight rebounds.

BSU is now 3-17 on the season and 0-8 in NSIC play marking the first time since the 1981-82 season that the Beavers have posted losses thier first eight league games. The team will be back in action again nest weekend (Feb. 11-12) when it hosts Wayne State College and Southwest Minnesota State in its final homestand of the regular season Tip-off for both games are slated for 6:00 p.m. at the BSU Gymnasium.