Concordia-St. Paul 76 Wayne State 71

            The Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears took down the Wayne State Wildcats 76-71 in NSIC women's basketball action Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn. The 'Cats fall to 9-13 overall and 6-12 in NSIC play while the Golden Bears move to 16-7 overall and 12-7 in league play.
            The Golden Bears jumped out to an early 4-0 lead but with 6:05 to go in the first quarter, the Wildcats took an 8-6 lead over the host team.
            The next few minutes saw both teams battle in a one possession game but with 2:20 to play in the opening period, junior forward Logan Hughes made a 3-pointer on a fast break to open up a six point lead at 17-11. WSC was able to hold CSP scoreless the rest of the period and with two made free throws from senior guard Kylie Hammer Wayne State took a 19-11 lead into the end of the first quarter.
            Hughes had eight points in the quarter on 3-3 shooting, including 2-2 from downtown.
            The Golden Bears scored the first eight points in the second quarter to tie the game up at 19-19 just 2:22 into the second period.
            Concordia-St. Paul took the lead back 27-25 with 6:06 to play in the first half.
            Wayne State grabbed the lead 33-30 on a three from freshman forward Maya Fitzpatrick with 1:37 to go before halftime. The Golden Bears made a three of their own to tie the score up at 33-33 heading into halftime. The first half of play featured five lead changes and six ties as WSC did not let the Golden Bear lead to grow to more than five.
            Fitzpatrick and Hammer each had five points in the second quarter to lead the Wildcats in scoring.
            The start of the third quarter was a back and forth affair as neither team was able to get a lead of more than two possessions throughout the entire third.
            Trailing by one, Hughes made another 3-pointer to give WSC the 47-45 lead midway through the period and into the first media timeout. WSC built the lead up to six, but one free throw made by the Golden Bears meant WSC had a 54-49 lead at the end of the quarter. Hammer led all scorers in the period posting 14 in the third.
            Wayne State opened the fourth quarter with five consecutive points from junior guard Lauren Zacharias to open up a 10-point 59-49 lead.
            CSP went on a 14-4 run to tie the game up at 63-63 with 5:26 to go in the ball game.
            The 'Cats were able to answer the run and didn't allow the Golden Bears to lead until the score was 72-71 with 43 seconds remaining in the contest. Concordia-St. Paul outscored Wayne State 6-0 in the final minute of play to take the 76-71 victory in a game that featured 14 lead changes and 11 ties.
            CSP shot 41.3 percent (26-63) from the floor and 35.7 percent (10-28) from downtown while WSC shot 40.6 percent (26-64) from the field and 35 percent (7-20) from 3-point range. The Golden Bears made 14-22 free throws (63.6 percent) while Wayne State shot 12-13 (92.3 percent) from the free throw line.
            Wayne State held a 43-33 advantage in rebounds while the Golden bears had seven more assists than the Wildcats 22-15. CSP had seven steals and eight turnovers while WSC committed 16 turnovers and had just two steals.
            Hammer led all scorers with 27 points in the game. Two other Wildcats hit double figures as Hughes added 13 and Fitzpatrick had 10.
            Hammer and Hughes each had eight rebounds to lead Wayne State while Fitzpatrick had a team-high five assists.
            The Wildcats will play their final road game of the season Thursday evening at Southwest Minnesota State starting at 5:30 p.m.