It was a tale of two halves for the Dakota Wesleyan University women's basketball team against No. 3 Concordia University.
The Tigers jumped out to quick start against the top-5 ranked Bulldogs en route to taking a 37-36 lead into halftime.
However, Concordia, led by reigning Great Plains Athletic Conference player of the year Bailey Morris, exploded in the second half for 64 points as it handed DWU its third GPAC loss of the season in a 100-70 win on Friday at the Corn Palace.
"There's a reason they are the number three team in the country," DWU head coach Jason Christensen said after the game. "They did a lot of good things offensively and we missed some assignments. They made a run and we played too tentatively waiting for someone else to make a play."
Morris finished the game with 29 points for the Bulldogs (14-1, 8-1 GPAC), while the Tigers (9-5, 4-3 GPAC) were led by Ashley Bray, who scored 23 points.
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"The first half we did not shoot the ball well, but in the second half we started to get going," Concordia head coach Drew Olson said. "I thought our defensive focus was much better in the second half. They handled our pressure really well in the first half so we decided to stop pressing and play defense in the half-court. It worked and we got some stops."
The Bulldogs collected 12 steals and made 10 second half 3-pointers to pull away from the Tigers.
Morris went 4-for-12 from beyond the arc and Becky Mueller added 19 points, including 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range.
"We stopped (Morris) in the first half and then Bailey said 'My team isn't going to be beat,' " Christensen said. "She took over the game and she is capable of doing that. I have a lot of respect for her."
The Tigers had 33 rebounds to the Bulldogs 47, which allowed for 28 second chance points for Concordia.
"We didn't have enough hustle plays and they out rebounded us big time," Christensen said. "I don't think the final score reflects how we played tonight because we played pretty good."
Katie Johnson scored 12 points, Gabby Frybko added three 3-pointers for nine points and Micaela Erickson pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in the loss.
"We met their intensity in the first half and defensively we played them tough," Erickson said. "In the second half, they just came out on fire and we might have took some plays off but we couldn't get a run going in the second half."
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Concordia made 35 of 80 field goals and 14 of 41 3-pointers, while the Tigers shot 23-of-56 from the floor and 7-of-17 from behind the arc.
"This will be a good film for us to watch and learn how to get better, especially the second half," Christensen said. "We will know where we need to be on the floor in certain spots and where to be on switches."
Erickson said the team learned it can play with the best teams in the country, but the Tigers need to put together a complete performance in order to pull out more wins.
"It's a game of runs and if we could have had a run in the middle of the second half, it would have been a completely different ball game," Erickson said. "We will learn from this and learn how to stop other team's offensive runs."
Christensen said he was happy with how his team took care of the basketball.
"I thought we did a good job cutting down on our turnovers," he said. "We only turned the ball over 16 times and that was a big concern of mine heading into this game."
The Tigers are on break until they travel to Mobile, Ala., for two games starting with a matchup against the University of Mobile on Dec. 30.
NOTES: DWU starter Erica Herrold did not play against Concordia. Christensen said Herrold sat out the game due to a violation of team rules.
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Concordia (100)
Bailey Morris 10-24 4-12 29; Tracy Peitz 3-5 0-0 9; Mary Janovich 1-8 1-5 5; Kelsey Hizer 4-7 0-0 8; Becky Mueller 6-11 5-9 19; Devin Edwards 0-0 0-0 0; Brenleigh Daum 1-5 1-5 3; Shelby Quinn 2-4 2-4 6; Jade Gottier 0-1 0-0 0; Jenna Lehmann 0-0 0-0 0; Jericca Pearson 2-3 0-0 6; Alayna Daberkow 2-4 0-2 6; Rachel Royuk 1-1 1-1 3; Laurel Krohn 1-4 0-3 2; Ashley Kuntz 2-3 0-0 4; Totals 35-80, 14-41 100.
Dakota Wesleyan (70)
Gabby Frybko 3-10 3-5 9; Micaela Erickson 2-8 0-2 4; Celeste Beck 1-6 1-3 4; Katie Johnson 3-8 0-0 12; Ashley Bray 7-10 3-3 23; Chesney Nagel 2-3 0-0 5; Savannah Minder 0-1 0-0 0; Madison Kuehl 1-1 0-0 4; Shanna Selby 0-0 0-0 0; Kristin Sabers 3-5 0-1 7; Josie Huber 1-4 0-3 2; Grayson Gruenhagen 0-0 0-0 0; Totals 23-56 7-17 70.
CU 36 64 100
DWU 37 33 70
3-point goals -- DWU 7 (Frybko 3, Bray 3), CU 14 (Mueller 5, Morris 4); Assists -- DWU 16 (Beck 5), CU 13 (Morris 5); Rebounds -- DWU 33 (Erickson 7), CU 47 (Janovich 9); Steals -- DWU 3 (Erickson 1), CU 12 (Mueller 3); Fouls -- DWU 20 (Erickson 4), CU 24 (Peitz 4); Fouled Out -- DWU (none), CU (none).
