FREMONT, Neb. – An important stretch all about taking care of business continued on Wednesday (Jan. 29) for a Concordia University, Nebraska Women’s Basketball team fresh off winning the Concordia Invitational Tournament. In a return to GPAC play, senior Abby Krieser started strong and the Bulldog press wreaked havoc while spurring the Bulldogs to a 71-57 victory at Midland. However, the Warriors made Concordia sweat it out thanks to a surprisingly dominant third quarter.
Head Coach Drew Olson’s squad has won four-straight games while improving to 12-10 overall and creeping closer to .500 in league play (7-9).
“We started off really, really well,” Olson said. “Offensively, we were clicking. The first half is kind of who I expected us to be in this game. In the third quarter, we started off cold and maybe not as focused as I expect our team to be. We would have liked to have put the hammer down, but part of that is Midland shot well and continued to fight. They did a good job – they adjusted their defense and that made us do something different. We lost our legs a little in that one quarter, but I think it was just a one-quarter thing. We did a great job responding.”
The Lincoln North Star alum Krieser tallied 11 of her team-high 14 points as part of a first half that supplied the Bulldogs ample margin for error. Over the final 5:35 of the second quarter, Concordia went on a 16-5 run (initiated by a Krieser triple) that boosted the advantage to 48-27 at the break. Midland was flustered into six turnovers during the spurt to end the half. A plus-16 turnover advantage for the game played a major role in the outcome. Krieser and company turned it over only six times all evening.
The Warriors flipped a switch at the half and made it a competitive contest. A scoring drought of nearly five minutes to begin the third quarter opened the door for Midland to climb back within five (50-45). The Bulldogs managed only six points for the entire third period before steadying the ship in the fourth. The visitors built the lead back to double digits (63-53) with Raelyn Kelty’s layup at the 4:11 mark of the final quarter. An 8-0 Concordia run in the waning moments put the game on ice.
Krieser went 6-for-9 from the floor and added four steals and three assists to her stat line. She was joined in double figures by Kristin Vieselmeyer (11 points, six rebounds and five assists). Eight other Bulldogs notched at least four points with eight coming from Megan Belt, seven from Kelty and six apiece from Kendal Brigham, Abby Heemstra and Makynna Robbins. The freshman Robbins was named MVP of CIT four days earlier.
Said Olson of Krieser, “She’s been fantastic over the last four or five games. I love what she’s bringing to the team on both ends of the floor. I like where our team’s at. I think we’re in a good spot.”
Midland (3-19, 3-13 GPAC) gave a much better account of itself than it did back on Nov. 26 when it was walloped, 92-41, inside Friedrich Arena. Jenna Weber sparked the Warrior comeback attempt on Wednesday while pouring in a game-high 20 points (to go with 10 rebounds) on the strength of 3-for-5 3-point shooting. Midland shot 40.0 percent (20-for-50) overall compared to 42.6 percent (29-for-68) shooting by Concordia. The Warriors held a 39-31 rebound advantage.
The Bulldogs will be back at home on Saturday as the calendar flips to February. Waldorf (5-15, 3-12 GPAC) will make a visit to Friedrich Arena for a 2 p.m. CT tipoff. In the season’s first matchup that took place in Forest City, Iowa, on Dec. 14, Concordia ran away with a 98-53 victory over the Warriors, who took Wednesday night off from game action.