UMD women's basketball runs into CSP buzzsaw in lopsided loss

DULUTH — Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference frontrunner Concordia-St. Paul flexed its muscle offensively against the Minnesota Duluth women’s basketball team on Saturday en route to a decisive 86-61 road victory at Romano Gym.

In spite of the lopsided end result, the Bulldogs showed flashes of cohesion on the offensive end of the floor but were unable to sustain it, according to head coach Mandy Pearson.

“We did some really good things,” said Pearson. “The ball was moving on offense in the first half and we were getting some really good looks. We kind of went away from that in the second half for some reason.”

On the opposite end of the floor, Pearson saw noticeable improvement in Saturday’s matchup compared to their last meeting on Dec. 21, though momentary lapses ultimately proved costly.

“Defensively I thought we were really solid, a lot better than last time we played them,” she said. “We saw a ton of improvements, but we still made some pretty critical mistakes that allowed for them to go on some runs.”

UMD freshman Vanessa Bickford’s efficient shooting helped guide the Bulldogs to a 19-17 lead through the first quarter of play. As a team, the ‘Dogs shot 8-of-15 over the opening 10 minutes but cooled off in the second quarter, opening the door for CSP to seize the momentum into halftime.

The Golden Bears leaned on the dominant presence inside provided by center Lindsey Becher to pull in front 21-19 and proceeded to close out the first half on a 21-13 run en route to taking a 42-32 lead into the break.

Becher was one of two CSP players to end the half in double figures with 13 points to go along with Lydia Haack’s 10. Bickford led the way for UMD with seven points, while Lexi Karge, Johanna Miller and Drew Johnston all poured in six.

The visitors picked up where they left off early in the second half with a 11-5 run, giving CSP its largest lead to that point, 53-36, prompting a UMD timeout. The break did little to stop the bleeding as the Golden Bears kept rolling to a 70-47 advantage by quarter’s end and never looked back into the final buzzer.

Lexi Karge led the ‘Dogs with 16 points, followed by Johanna Miller with 10. UMD shot 43% (25-of-58) from the field, while CSP shot a lights out 56% (33-for-59).

UMD (7-14) will look to snap its four-game losing skid when the team returns home on Wednesday to host Southwest Minnesota State in a 7:30 p.m. start.