CROOKSTON, Minn. -- The Bemidji State women's basketball team gained its second victory of the week and improved to 10-11 on the season with a 81-71 win over the University of Minnesota-Crookston Saturday at UMC's Lysaker Gymnasium. The win marked the second early season loss the Beavers have avenged this week after dropping Upper Iowa University Thursday.

Freshman guard Colleen Boell (Fr., G, Burnsville, Minn.) came off the bench for BSU to net a career-high 17 points and eight rebounds as she stepped in for the injured Nancy McConkey (Jr., F, Superior, Wis.). Stephanie Peterson (So., C, Bismarck, N.D.) also continued to be a presence in the paint for the Beavers equaling Boell's team-high 17 points while grabbing 10 rebounds for her team-best 10th double-double of the season.

The Golden Eagles were paced by Kari Score who poured in a game-high 25 points on 10-of-14 from the floor. She also led the team with 10 rebounds.

The Beavers scored first and led for the majority of the first eight minutes of play, but a seven-point run by UMC, capped by an old fashioned three-point play by Karna Plaine, gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game (17-12) with 12:22 to play in the first half.

Bemidji State would whittle away at the UMC lead and use a six-point run of their own to regain the lead, 23-21 six minutes later. The Beavers would never trail again.

BSU went on to lead by as many as six in the first half as its bench, which out scored UMC's 32-8 in the game, came up with some big shots in the final minutes taking a 39-34 lead into the break.

Minnesota-Crookston came out of the locker room to cut the BSU lead to one (39-38) on a Plaine three-pointer, but that was as close as UMC would get as the Beavers would score on their next three possessions stretching their lead to seven (45-38).

The BSU advantage would hover around seven points until a 8-0 run started on a Heidi Matzke (Fr., G, Red Lake Falls, Minn.) would give BSU its largest lead of the night at 71-54 with over four minutes to play. The Beavers would not look back coasting to the 81-71 NSIC win.

The victory marked the first for BSU head coach Mike Curfman in Crookston or versus his former team since he left UMC in August. BSU now leads the all-time series 12-6.

The win improves BSU's overall record to 10-11 while they slide into a tie with Minnesota Crookston for fifth place in the conference standings at 3-5 in league play. The Beavers will be back on the road next weekend as they travel to Wayne State College and Southwest Minnesota State University. BSU will look to even its record at 11-11 Friday in a 6 p.m. match-up with the No.25 team in the land in WSC and then moves to Marshall, Minn. for a 6 p.m. Saturday tilt with SMSU.