MANKATO, Minn. – The No. 13 ranked Mavericks (10-2, 6-0 NSIC) defeated No. 14 Concordia-St. Paul (11-1, 5-2 NSIC), 85-66, to take over the top spot in the NSIC on Thursday. A strong 23-9 third quarter helped Minnesota State obtain a lead, which they did not relinquish. Junior guard Natalie Bremer ended the game with 23 points, eight rebounds and three steals to lead all scorers.
 
Senior Destinee Bursch kicked off the game with corner three, but NSIC Player of the Week Lindsey Becher made three consecutive layups to give CSP a three-point lead early. After two Becher free throws, another Golden Bear layup put the away team up 12-7 with 5:14 remaining in the first quarter. Minnesota State went on a 7-0 run to take the lead back, but the advantage swung the other way on a three from Concordia. A layup from Ava Stier gave the Mavericks the lead back right at the end of the quarter to give the home team an 18-17 advantage after the first period.
 
Maverick guard Adeline Kent found a cutting Bremer for a layup to put the Mavericks up 22-17 after the first minute of the second quarter. The two teams traded scores back and forth until CSP took a one-point lead after a made three from Leah Dengerud. Freshman Elisabeth Gadient found Lucy Leininger on a fast break for an easy layup to swing the lead back to the home team. Bremer made a pair of two-point jumpers to extend the Maverick lead to four with three minutes left in the half. After the Golden Bears scored a layup on the other end, Bremer made good on an and-one opportunity to put Minnesota State up 37-32. Bursch and Mackenzie Schweim put the team up by seven with just under two to play in the quarter, but CSP closed it out on an 8-2 run led by guard Lydia Haack to make it a one-point game at half, 43-42.
 
The Mavericks shot 46.2% from the field in the first half and made one three-pointer in five attempts. MSU forced 10 Golden Bear turnovers and scored eight points from those takeaways. Bremer had 16 points at halftime. Bursch had seven.
 
Despite the one-point deficit, Concordia-St. Paul shot just 37.5% in the first half. The team scored 26 points in the paint and made all 10 of its free throw attempts.
 
Bursch made a layup to start the second half and found Schweim for an assisted layup to give the Mavericks a five-point lead. The Golden Bears hit their third three-pointer of the game to cut it to two. Six straight points from the home team gave the Mavericks a seven-point lead. After Becher made a layup to give her 10 points, Bremer went on a 7-0 run by herself after she sunk a three and made two fast-break layups to put the team up by 12. A three from Haack cut the Maverick lead to single digits, but Minnesota State scored the last six points of the quarter. A 23-9 third from the Mavericks gave the team a 66-51 lead headed into the final quarter.
 
Bursch made two layups to get the fourth quarter started. She made another to put MSU up 19 with seven minutes left in regulation. Redshirt freshman Shantell Harden made her first career three to put the team up 20 with 6:48 left to play. Over the next three minutes, the Golden Bears pushed back on a 10-4 run, but made shots from Stier, Bursch and Harden closed out the game, as the Mavericks handed CSP its first loss of the season, 85-66.
 
Minnesota State shot 48.6% from the field (36-74 FG), 3-13 from beyond the arc (23.1% 3P) and 10-17 from the free throw line (58.8% FT). The team scored 25 points from the Golden Bears' 25 turnovers, the most for CSP this season. The Mavericks dished out 18 assists, grabbed 43 rebounds and had 15 steals. Despite the strong start inside for Concordia, MSU outscored the away team 48-36 in the paint. The Maverick bench scored 25 points.
 
Bremer's 23-point performance against Concordia-St. Paul marks the seventh game this season she has reached 20 points. She ended the game with eight rebounds, and three steals while shooting 10-19 from the field. Bursch had 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal. The senior guard shot 8-11 from the field and made her only three. Stier ended with 10 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal. While she didn't score a ton of points, Gadient was key in the game for MSU; She had eight rebounds and eight steals to go along with two steals. Kent shot a perfect 4-4 from the field to score eight points while she contributed three rebounds, three assists and a steal in the win.
 
Concordia-St. Paul shot just 32.4% from the field in its first loss of the 2024-25 season. Haack led the team with 16 points. She had nine rebounds and four assists but turned the ball over six times. Becher ended with a double-double, as the center scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. She had one block.
 
The Mavericks have one game left on their schedule in 2024. The team travels to Winona State (7-5, 3-3 NSIC) to challenge the Warriors in an NSIC battle on Saturday, December 21 at 1:00 p.m. in McCown Gymnasium. Minnesota State looks to extend its winning streak against the Warriors to six on Saturday.