The University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team got it's first glimpse of undefeated No. 2 University of North Dakota Saturday afternoon, and it overwhelmed the Bulldogs, 58-81 before 1,587 in Romano Gymnasium. The loss marks the fifth straight for UMD since losing leading scorer and rebounder Lindsey Dietz, and it is the first time since the 1983-84 season that the Bulldogs have dropped five consecutive contests.

UMD won the opening tip but fell prey to an immediate 20-5 UND run that lasted over ten minutes. The Bulldogs had chances to distrupt the early string with good looks at the bucket, but four misses in-a-row dampened spirits and benefited a fiesty North Dakota side. UMD finally scored it's first basket of the half at 15:12, and awakened some offense, pulling together 5-0 run efforts twice to chop a half-high nineteen points to 13 (36-23) with just under two minutes to play. The Bulldogs seemed plagued by a mere 33.3 percent shooting from the field (9-for-27), and a lowly 20 percent from behind the trey line (2-of-10) after the first 20 minutes and trailed 24-38 at the break.

North Dakota would came out racing once more, opening the second half with an 11-4 rally. UMD could only draw as close as 15 points at the 11:45 mark before UND put it's No. 2 stamp on the Bulldogs by as many as 25 points before the final buzzer sounded. UMD, who was outrebounded by North Dakota 44-26, sorely missed the efforts of Dietz (9.2 RPG) and Justine Axtell (6.0), who is out indefinitely after an injury that took place last Saturday against South Dakota. The Bulldogs received a game-high 22 points from junior Katie Winkelman, but unfortunately for UMD, she was the only player to score in double figures. It was Winkelman's fifth straight game in which she led UMD from the floor in scoring.

UND, (27-0, 9-0), was led by Ashley Langen, who had a double-double to the tune of 21 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Kristi Boese added 15 points and seven rebounds in the winning effort.

UMD, (16-8, 3-6), and in much need of lucky break, return to Romano Gymnasium one final time this season to host Nebraska-Omaha next Saturday. Senior Day kick-off will start when the ball goes up at 1 p.m.