Box Score Mankato, Minn. --- The Minnesota State Mavericks defeated the #20-ranked Golden Bears of Concordia University-St. Paul, Friday evening in the Taylor Center, 79-76.
The Win marks the eighth consecutive victory at the Taylor Center and 573rd victory in program history.
Sophomore center Laura Weber opened the game winning the tip-off for the Mavericks. MSU allowed Concordia to score the first points of the game off a jumper. Senior forward Liz Trauger put up the first points for the Mavericks. The Mavericks took the lead at 13:56 by five points. Concordia battled back tying the game with nine minutes left in the half. The Golden Bears took the largest lead of 10 points with four minutes left in the half after five good jumpers. Cutting the lead the Mavericks ended the half with an eight point deficit, 41-33.
A close first half the score was tied six times while there were six lead changes. MSU shot 39.4 percent from the field while out rebounding the Golden Bears 25-19. The Mavericks scored five points off of Concordia turnovers.
Leading the Mavericks in the first half with 14 points was Trauger, while senior guard Tiffany Moe and sophomore guard Lauren Barber both contributed six points to the scoring in the first half.
The Mavericks came out strong in the second half with Weber putting down three layups, cutting the deficit to two points. The Golden Bears started the half with their largest lead that would not be given back to them. With eight minutes left in the half Concordia had a five-point lead on the Mavericks to be taken away as Moe put down two jumpers, followed by one more by Weber.
At 6:42 left in the game Concordia received a technical foul, where Moe put two shots in at the line to tie the game, followed by a jumper to give the Mavericks a two-point lead. The game was tied three more times before the Mavericks ran away with the lead by six points with 26 seconds left in the game to be cut to three after the Golden Bears sank a shot from the arc with 13 seconds left on the clock but wasn’t enough.
Minnesota State shot 51.6 percent from the field while out rebounding the Golden Bears 44-31. Trauger led the Mavericks in scoring earning her career-high points with 24, grabbing nine rebounds, followed by Weber earning her first career double-double while earning her career high of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Moe tallied 19 points to put her at 1,004 career points. Barber tallied 11 points for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks now 10-5 overall and 5-3 in the NSIC will host the Huskies of St. Cloud State tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. in the Taylor Center.
