For University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball coach Annette Wiles and her team, it's great to be playing in March.
The Bulldogs (15-11 overall, 13-9 Northern Sun) have taken that attitude through the final weeks of their regular season, and have pushed themselves into middle of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference playoff picture, earning the sixth seed. UMD will take on third seeded Concordia-St. Paul at the Golden Bears' home arena Wednesday at 6 p.m., with the winner moving on to, well, Concordia-St. Paul. The Golden Bears will host the semifinals and championship game in the same location.
"We get to see the host team of the conference tournament on their home floor," Wiles said. "Of course you want to knock the host team off. We're certainly excited to extend our season, so we're looking forward to this challenge.
The Golden Bears (17-9, 16-6) hosted UMD earlier this season, knocking off the Bulldogs 79-50 in St. Paul early in January. Concordia never appeared in Duluth this year, leaving the Bulldogs no opportunity to repay the favor.
"We were definitely disappointed after that first game, and we would have loved to get that second shot at them here," sophomore guard Courtney Doucette said. "But just getting another shot at them now, when we're peaking and during playoffs is big for us. We know we're capable of winning, and I think that will be a big motivation for us."
The Bulldogs committed 20 turnovers against an aggressive Concordia defense, and were out-scored in the paint 42-28 in the first game. However, Wiles said the points in paint numbers are deceiving, because the guard-led Golden Bears scored most of those on dribble-penetration and layups.
"We started a lot of fast-breaks for them on our turnovers," Wiles said. "I hope we're a better team now than we were then. They're virtually a team dominated by guard-play. For us, avoiding turnovers and then playing a greater level of perimeter defense will be key."
UMD has been on a bit of a tear of late, winning six of its last eight games. The Bulldogs have been competitive even in losses, as their three most recent losses have been by a combined eight points. Junior center Emma Van Winkle credited much of the team's recent success on an adjustment they made in January.
"We hit kind of a rough patch in January. We didn't win as many as we would have liked, but I think we responded really well to that. We came together as a team and refocused ourselves," she said. "Coach always tells us February and March are the best times to peak, because that's when tournament time is. We're playing really good basketball right now, and I'm really excited."
The Golden Bears had a streak of 13 consecutive wins snapped last weekend on a 67-70 loss to Northern State University, but finished the season with a win over St. Cloud State University. Prior to the loss, Concordia was the conference's hottest team, boasting the highest winning streak by eight. But Wiles and the Bulldogs are very aware that come post-seaso, numbers like that don't mean much.
"The name of the game this time of year is 'put the ball in the basket,'" Wiles said. "It comes down to having players step up and find the bottom of the net."
