BEMIDJI, Minn. (BSU Gymnasium) (box score)- The Bemidji State University women’s basketball team held a lead over No. 6 Concordia-St. Paul for the majority of the first half on Friday evening at the BSU Gymnasium, but a motivated Golden Bears team fought back from an early 11-point deficit to upend the Beavers, 87-74.

The Beavers led by as many as 11 in the first half, but a 24-13 run to end the half, followed by a 10-1 run to start the second half, capped by a Jamie Jones layup, would put the Golden Bears up by nine and the team would never look back.

The Beavers were led by senior Karlee Simonson (F, Rockford, Minn.) who tied a season-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and a season best 3-of-4 from three-point range. Heidi Matzke (Jr., F, Red Lake Fall, Minn.) added 15 points and four assists while freshman forward Colleen McKay (Barnum, Minn.) added 14 and Amy Lawson (Sr., PG, Spencer, Iowa) had 12 points while dishing out a team-best seven assists. Simonson led the Beavers on the boards with nine rebounds.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) pre-season player of the year Amanda Behnke led the Golden Bears as she recorded the games lone double-double posting a game-high 27 points and 10 rebounds on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line. Candace Olstad and Abby Nielsen joined Behnke in double-digit scoring adding 15 and 11 points, respectively. The NSIC’s leader in assists Katie LaViolette dished out a game-high 10 assists.

BSU jumped out to an early 7-0 lead just 1:41 into the game as Stephanie Peterson (Sr., C, Bismarck, N.D.) notched four of her eight points during that span.

The Beavers continued to apply pressure to the No. 6 team in the nation and pushed its lead 11-points at 23-12 with 14:24 remaining in the first half. CSP cut the Beaver lead to eight two times during the next 3:06 but a Melissa Roberts (Jr., F, Staples, Minn.) three-pointer with 11:05 left in the first half pushed the Beavers lead back to eleven points at 28-17.

The Golden Bears fought back and over the next 7:41 CSP went on a 17-4 run capped off by two Te’Aira Small free-throws to give CSP its first lead of the game at 34-32. The teams went back and forth during the final minutes of the first half and went into the halftime break tied ,41-41.

The Golden Bears came out of the locker room to hit the first six field goals of the second half to build its lead to 9-points, 53-44, during the first 7:54 of the second half. The Beavers came out of the locker room ice cold as they missed their first 14 field goal attempts. Kristina Salscheider (Jr., G, Cass Lake, Minn.) eventually broke the seal for the Beavers as she hit a jumper at 11:54 to end the Beavers scoring woes. CSP continued to apply pressure as they built their lead to 10-points twice during the first 10-minutes of the final half.

The Golden Bears held a double-digit lead over the Beavers the remainder of the second half and pushed its lead to as many as 18-points, twice during the games final stanza. The Beavers tried to battle back but it was to little to late for the Beavers as they would fall 87-74 to the Golden Bears at the BSU Gymnasium.

The Golden Bears held a 47-34 edge on the glass and out shot the Beavers on the night 54.4 (31-57) to 34.8 (23-66) on the night. CSP out scored the Beavers 36-to-14 in the paint and 34-to-8 in bench points.

With the win CSP improves to 19-11 all-time versus BSU and extend their winning streak to three games over the Beavers.

Bemidji State falls to 10-11 overall and 6-6 in the NSIC while the Golden Bears improve to 19-1 and 10-1 in conference play.

Bemidji State will look stop a season-long four game losing skid tomorrow night when they host the MSU Moorhead Dragons from the BSU Gymnasium at 6:00 p.m.

Bemidji State University, located in Bemidji, Minn., is an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

--beavers--