SIOUX FALLS – When push came to shove Monday morning, there was no stopping the conference champ.

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season women’s basketball champ Concordia-St. Paul defeated Northern State 66-44 in the semifinals of the NSIC Tournament.

“They played a real physical game today,” said NSU coach Paula Krueger. “We tried to match that physicality. We just fell short.”

The Golden Bears erased an early 13-5 deficit by going on a 16-2 run the rest of the opening quarter to grab a 21-15 advantage. The period included seven second-chance points by CSP.

“We didn’t match their physicality really well,” Krueger said. “We made a couple of defensive errors when we left our feet, and they really kicked our butt in the paint. That’s really abnormal for us.”

The Golden Bears played with the lead the rest of half as the Wolves had foul trouble, forcing point guard Rianna Fillipi to the bench.

“It’s hard for us when Rio gets into foul trouble early,” Krueger said. “That hasn’t happened really all year.”

Northern made a strong run in the third quarter, slicing the margin down to 42-38 on a 3-pointer by Izzy Moore with 3:13 left in the period. However, that momentum did not last long.

“We cut it to four and then Alayna (Benike) made a really nice move in the middle of the lane and had a turnaround jumper and it just didn’t go in, and they went down and hit a three, and all of sudden it’s seven,” Krueger said. “And then we came down and missed another one, and they went down and got fouled and hit a couple of free throws and all of a sudden it’s back to 10, and before I knew it was 14, and we just couldn’t come back. It wasn’t for lack of effort of trying hard or any of those things. We didn’t get the job done today.”

CSP continued to pull away down the stretch to move into today’s championship game against Minnesota State.

Krueger said there were two crucial possessions that were tough to overcome, and both involved offensive rebounds by the Golden Bears.

“At the end of the first quarter we were playing defense, they get an offensive rebound and hit a three, that was huge,” Krueger said. “And then we had a defensive stop, or so I thought, and they got an offensive rebound and tipped it back out, and hit another one.”

While the battle on the boards ended up fairly even, CSP made the most of its extra chances.

“Every time we gave up an offensive rebound they did something with it. They made us pay,” Krueger said. “That’s what great teams do. Obviously, when you’ve only lost two games all year, you’re a pretty darn good basketball team.”

Fillipi led Northern with 11 points. Madelyn Bragg and Michaela Jewett each added 10. Bragg also hauled down a game-high 14 rebounds.

In the end it wasn’t enough to prevent the NSIC champion from playing for the NSIC tourney title.

“Hats off to CSP,” Krueger said. “They played really well and unfortunately for us today, we did not play our best basketball at all.”

Now the Wolves, 19-11, play the waiting game. Northern, rated eighth in the most recent Central Division rankings, will wait until Sunday to see whether it will receive an at large bid to the region tournament. The top eight teams in the ratings will comprise the tourney field.

“It’s hard thing for players and coaches to not have any control,” Krueger said. “We’re playing that waiting game where we’re watching scoreboards and we’re doing all of those things.”

Krueger said it’s difficult being in limbo and not knowing what the future holds.

“We’re very definitely in the conversation and I don’t know what’s harder: know that you’re done and start to accept it and move forward or have to hang on for another week and not be sure,” she said. “It’s always good to have a little bit of hope, but at that same time knowing for sure in this scenario would be a nice thing. too. We’re just going to take it a day by day here, but it’s going to be long wait ’til Sunday.”

Regardless of what happens, Krueger is proud of the current players and what they have accomplished this season.

“I’m really proud of this group of young ladies and I’m forever grateful for all that they’ve given back to Northern State and to our basketball program,” Krueger said. “I also want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Aberdeen and the surrounding community and Wolves Country, because they were fantastic this season.”

To see a complete box score of the game, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2024-25/concordia-st-paul/boxscore/14000