MANKATO, Minn. --- The Minnesota State women's basketball  team fell to Concordia St. Paul, 72-61, Tuesday night at Taylor Center.  

The Minnesota State offense was led early by Britney Scherber. Scherber scored the first three points for the Mavericks in the first quarter while neither team could find a consistent rhythm. Rachel Shumski added four points off of the bench. Karina Schroeder made an outstanding play for the Mavericks in the first quarter forcing a steal and then traveling the length of the court for the layup adding to a 12-9 lead. ­­­­With under two minutes to play in the quarter, the Golden Bears finished the quarter on a nine point run including a buzzer beater to lead the Mavericks, 18-14.

Concordia-St. Paul kept its momentum going into the second quarter leading the Mavericks into the first timeout by a score of 27-18. Scherber kept the Mavericks within reach of the lead scoring four consecutive free throws out of the timeout. The Golden Bears held the advantage at halftime leading the Mavericks, 29-24. Scoring was spread evenly between the Minnesota State starters and their bench with Scherber leading the Mavericks with seven points.

Early in the third quarter Sammie Delzotto scored a jumper to break up the Golden Bears  fourth streak of five or more buckets. After a Maverick timeout,Claire Jordan scored Minnesota State's first three point field goal of the game to narrow the Golden Bear lead to ten, 31-41. Aggressive play by the Mavericks would not let the Golden Bear lead grow. Logan Anderson scored her sixth point of the game with 3:17 left in the quarter, and Taylor Klug drew an offensive foul in the next possession shifting momentum back to the Mavericks. Minnesota State trailed at the end of the third quarter, 55-39.

The fourth quarter was played at a very quick pace as the Mavericks pushed to close in on the Golden Bear lead. Monica Muth scored a layup in the opening seconds of the quarter which sparked an 8-2 run. With under five minutes left to play Minnesota State went on a late surge that cut into the Concordia-St. Paul advantage. Delzotto scored a three point basket at 4:30 and Anderson added a layup to cap a seven point run by the Mavericks. However, the Golden Bears went on to close out the remaining time and pick up the 72-61 win.

The Mavericks bench outscored the Golden Bears, 23-10 . Minnesota State shot 28.6% from the field compared to Concordia's 41.9%

Delzotto led the Mavericks in scoring with a team-high 12 points and added a team-best seven rebounds. Muth, Scherber, and Jordan each netted nine points to round out the top performers.

With the loss , Minnesota State moves to 7-7 (3-7 NSIC) on the season. The Mavericks return to Taylor Center on Friday against Minot State. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.