By: by Patrick Rydeen

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Concordia University women's basketball team (1-0) tipped off their season this afternoon in the CCA Tip-Off Classic against Cal State-East Bay (0-1) with a 73-61 victory. Anika Whiting double-doubled and Carissa Wolyniec hit five triples to help the Golden Bears improve to 7-7 in season openers under head coach Paul Fessler. This was the first ever meeting between these two schools.

Concordia got off to a good start as Concordia's bench came in early and scored the first nine for CU to build a 9-4 advantage just over four minutes into play. Amanda Barton got the scoring going with a pair of buckets before Lauren Shifflett hit her first career three in a Golden Bear uniform. Jodi Batzel finished the run with a layup. Batzel, in her first regular season game since being injured on opening night last season, was effective off the bench and scored 10 points on 4-7 shooting and grabbed eight boards.

The Pioneers got it back down to two at 12-10, but CU used a 12-3 run to push the lead out to 24-15 with 7:02 remaining in the first half capped off by a Barton three. The game of runs continued as an Cal State-East Bay used 8-2 run to cut the lead to three before the Golden Bears responded with six straight going into the half with a 32-23 advantage.

CU shot 37.3% from the field and 23.1% from three in the first half compared to 33.3% for CSUEB and 0-6 from beyond the arc. The Golden Bear bench scored 18 of the team's 32 points in the first half as Barton had seven, Batzel had six and Shifflett had five.

The Golden Bears extended the lead to double digits in the opening minutes of the second half on a three from Carissa Wolyniec and didn't let up the rest of the game. Another Wolyniec three with 12:30 left in the game gave Concordia a 49-29 lead, their biggest of the afternoon.

Cal State-East Bay made a late run to cut the lead to ten in the closing moments as CU settled with a 73-61 win.

Wolyniec turned it on the second half, hitting four threes and scoring 14 of her 17 points for the game. Whiting scored 11 in the second half and finished the dya with 15 points and 11 boards. She was 4-11 from the field and 7-7 from the line. Rachel Hansen did a little bit of everything with six points, five rebounds, five assists and a block.

Concordia won the battle on the glass, outrebounding the Pioneers 41-30 and outshot CSUEB 44.0% to 37.1%. Cal State-East Bay was able to force 25 CU turnovers but were unable to take advantage.

Concordia continues tournament play tomorrow at 8:15 p.m. CT against Pittsburg State.