The University of Minnesota Duluth fell to the .500 mark in its final Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference match-up of the unofficial first half of the season, and after a week off for the holidays, will return to action this week when conference play continues throughout the Bulldogs' final 16 games of the season.

UMD (6-6, 3-3 NSIC) will begin the 2015 portion of its schedule on the road this weekend at Concordia University, St. Paul and Minnesota State University Mankato before hosting a two-week homestand before classes reconvene later this month. UMD closes out the month with four games on the road and will split three weeks at home and on the road to close out the regular season in February. Even through their first 12 games, the Bulldogs started the season with three victories in a row, but then fell in four-straight against regionally-ranked competition. Rebounding with a pair of road divisional victories and a Romano Gym upset of then-No. 14-ranked Minnesota State University-Moorhead, UMD's young season has been full of ups and downs.

FIRST HALF HIGHS & LOWS
The first half has been a highlight for UMD in one very literal way: The Bulldogs have trailed at the half in just three games this season, but they have been outscored in the second half in eight of 12 contests. Head coach Matt Bowen said he did not yet have an answer to the team's struggles after the break. "I like the think we're focused and prepared going into the game. Obviously, teams are making adjustments in the second half and we aren't responding to them. This team, for whatever reason, goes through scoring droughts, and those tend to happen in the second half."

"In the end, this is a very experienced, old group but it's very inexperienced together. When you look at it, Reece Zoelle is the only returning player who played at all last year. The rest of them - Justin Byrd, Brett Ervin, Brendon Pineda, Taylor Lavery, Pierre Newton - they're all new. They're all trying to figure it out and work within each other. Basketball is a game of flow and continuity, and learning to play off each others' strengths and weaknesses.We have a fun team to watch and are very competitive, but we also have these droughts where we struggle."

Senior center Brett Ervin has served as a highlight in his return to the court in the first half, currently second in the NSIC in overall scoring with 18.2 points per game and leading the league in points in conference play at 22.3 PPG. "Statistically, we are playing better than what our record shows," Bowen said. "Our defensive field goal percentage is decent. Our three-point scoring defense is decent. We're not getting blasted in games - with the exception of the game against St. Cloud. The highlight of the season is that we're trending towards being a better team. That highlight is also the frustration of the season: we're trending, but we're not producing yet." UMD leads the conference in scoring defense, allowing just 66.5 points per game in league play. Opponents are shooting 44.4 percent against UMD and haven't strayed far, just 47.5 percent in the Bulldogs' six losses and 41.2 percent in their six wins. Meanwhile, UMD's shooting has been hot and cold - 50.3 percent in victories and just 39.7 percent in defeat. "We've demonstrated glimpses where we can be very solid on both ends, but yet we tend to disappear at times. That can be said with a lot of teams across Division I, Division II, Division III, but it's hurt this team. Until we do that, we're going to see those ebbs and flows and changes - not only from night to night, but minute to minute. That's what we need to improve upon the most."

The other major differences for UMD in wins and losses are rebounding and personal fouls. The Bulldogs have shot 75.2 percent from the charity stripe this season, second-best in the NSIC, but have made 42 more trips to the line in victory than in defeat, while sending opponents to the line 15 more times in losses. Rebounding, UMD and its opponents have each hauled in 32.2 boards per game in its six defeats, but the Bulldogs have a 35.2-to-27.0 edge in their victories. "I was expecting us to be better, but let's be honest: we're not," said Bowen. "We had to get away, take a break, and come back with energy and find a way to get this season going in the right direction. It's a team I really enjoy being around, I really enjoy coaching, but we haven't produced yet at the level that I want, and I think this team wants, this program to produce. We've had multiple double-digit first half leads slip away. We've been very competitive for a lot of games, but we've lost four or five games that we just gave away. That's frustrating."

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS (Friday, Jan. 2, 8:00 p.m.) - Live Stats/Video
• Concordia-St. Paul (6-5, 2-3 NSIC) upset No. 10 Minnesota State Mankato last time out, 75-73, in St. Paul, snapping a three-game losing streak in league play. CU built up a 12-point halftime lead by shooting 75.0 percent (18-of-24) and held on to shoot 67.4 percent for the game.
• Junior guard Cole Olstad leads the Golden Bears, scoring 14.5 points per game this season while shooting 41.0 percent on the season. Freshman forward Nuni Omot is second in the league in shooting percentage at 69.7 percent in league play while scoring 11.0 points per game while starting just three games on the season. Omot is second on Concordia in rebounds at 6.3 per game, just behind junior center Mike Yahnke's 6.5 per contest.
• Senior guard Terez Van Pelt is tied for second in league play averaging 4.2 assists per game and fifth with 1.8 steals per outing.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS (Saturday, Jan. 3, 6:00 p.m.) - Live Stats/Video
• No. 10 Minnesota State (9-2, 4-1 NSIC) dropped its first game of conference play last time out against Concordia-St. Paul and will host St. Cloud State on Friday before UMD arrives in Mankato. The team had previously won nine straight after falling in its season opener to the University of Central Missouri, the team currently ranked third in the country.
• Senior forward Assem Marei is second in the NSIC averaging 19.8 points per game to lead the Mavericks, while senior guard Zach Monaghan is not far behind at 17.8. Senior Connor Miller is also averaging double digits with 13.0 points per game on the season.
• Marei also ranks third in the league hauling in 8.0 rebounds per game to lead Mankato, but sophomore guard Mike Busack is not far behind with 7.8 per NSIC contest. Monaghan leads the conference with 8.8 assists per outing, while no other player averages even five in league play.

BULLDOG 'BYTE
"It's another brutally difficult road trip for us. There are no easy games in this league, but this is a weekend that is particularly challenging. Concordia has a new coach. Joey is doing a great job, and his team has improved tremendously on the defensive end. As frustrated as we were losing to St. Cloud, they go into the break on Cloud 9, playing their best game of the season, beating Minnesota State. Concordia is getting better, and they have a great group of athletes who play solid defense -- then you go to Mankato which is a perennial top ten team in the country with two, maybe three or four all-league players, maybe an All-American or two. That's what this league is about. We won four road games to start out the season so I like our chances, but we're going to have to improve and be more consistent." - Matt Bowen on opening on the road

The Bulldogs and Golden Bears will take the court at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul on Friday night at 8:00 p.m., following the women's contest.