The University of Minnesota Duluth will look to keep the hot shooting it has exhibited in its past two games and bounce back as Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play continues with the first two-game weekend of the season against the University of Minnesota-Crookston and Bemidji State University.
UMD (3-4, 0-1 NSIC) got out of its shooting got out of its scoring slump by shooting 53 percent last Saturday night against St. Cloud State University, but the Huskies swiped the NSIC opener in the closing moments, edging UMD 69-66.
FREE THROWS• UMD suffered a pair of last-second defeats last week, falling at the buzzer by three in back-to-back games at Northern Michigan and St. Cloud State.
• Senior center
Brett Ervin netted a team-high 16.0 points per game for UMD, including 20 in the NSIC opener on Saturday against St. Cloud State while also hauling in 5.5 rebounds/game. Junior guard
Pierre Newton scored 12.0 points per game on 56.3 percent shooting while hauling in 5.5 rebounds per game, adding five assists and one steal on the week.
• The Bulldogs' four-year starters, Ervin and guard
Reece Zoelle are both climbing up the career scoring list. Ervin, now with 1,110 career points needs 131 points to crack the top 25 in program history. Zoelle, at 943 points, is set to become the Bulldogs' next 1,000-point scorer later this season.
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Minnesota-Crookston (2-3, 0-1 NSIC) fell to unbeaten Bemidji State 78-50 in its conference opener but is undefeated at home in the regular season. The Bulldogs are 24-4 all-time against Minnesota-Crookston and also split last season's meetings with the Dragons.
• Junior guard Derrick Reed, Jr. has played the most minutes per game in the conference at 34.4 per contest, while also averaging 11.6 points per game and shooting 47.9 percent on the season for UMC.
• Senior guard Tyler West, Jr. is currently sixth in the NSIC in rebounding, hauling in 7.6 boards per game on the season. West is also averaging 11.0 points in 2014.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS (Saturday, Dec. 6, 6:00 p.m.) -
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Bemidji State (5-0, 1-0 NSIC) has defeated each of its opponents by 11 or more points this season including a 78-50 victory over Minnesota-Crookston last time out. UMD is 88-40 all-time against the Beavers and split with BSU in two games last season.
• Senior guard Brock Lutes, the NSIC North's Preseason Player of the Year in 2014-15, is leading the North division and second in the conference averaging 20.4 points per game. He's also in the NSIC top-15 in three-point percentage at 48.3 and assist-turnover ratio at +1.7.
• Sophomore forward Shane White ranks 13th in the league averaging 6.6 rebounds per game, while sophomore guard is 11th averaging 4.0 assists per game and seventh with 1.6 steals per outing. He tops the NSIC with a +6.7 A/T ratio.
The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles will tip the weekend on Friday night at 8:00 p.m., following the women's game.
