After a weekend split at Romano Gym, the University of Minnesota Duluth secured the fifth seed in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North division and will travel to fourth-seeded NSIC South foe Augustana (S.D.) College on Wednesday evening for the NSIC/Sanford Health Postseason Tournament opening round.
UMD (12-14, 10-12 NSIC) will look to end a string of first-round exits on Wednesday night when the Bulldogs seek their first NSIC postseason tournament win since 2010. Having been unranked in the NCAA II Regional Rankings released last week, UMD will likely need to make a significant run in the NSIC playoffs to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011-12. The Bulldogs and Vikings have never matched up in the NSIC Tournament but did compete in the North Central Conference Tournament against each other in 2006 and the NCAA Tournament in 2010, both wins for Augustana.
FREE THROWS• Senior guard
Jessica Newman averaged a team-high 14.5 points on the weekend while grabbing 3.5 rebounds per outing, adding four assists and a pair of steals on the weekend. She netted 15 second-half points in UMD's 77-56 defeat at the hands of Minot State on Saturday night, finishing with 20 on 7-of-20 shooting including 4-of-11 from three-point range. She scored nine points in an abbreviated outing on Friday night, giving way to UMD's reserves in a dominant 73-40 win fo the Bulldogs.
• Sophomore forward
Kenzie Kane set a career-high of scoring with 13 points on Friday night, then doing one better with 14 points on Saturday night off the bench for UMD. She shot 36.4 percent (8-of-22) while nailing 7-of-15 threes (46.7 percent) and a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe, adding one assist and one steal.
SCOUTING THE VIKINGS (Wednesday, Feb. 25, 6:00 p.m.) -
Live Video/Stats
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Augustana (20-9, 14-8 NSIC/5th-South) has won four in a row and nine of ten since being knocked off by UMD 73-68 at Romano Gym on Jan. 17 earlier this season. The Vikings are 15-9 all-time against UMD, including 2-0 in the postseason.
• The Bulldogs held the NSIC's leading scorer, senior guard Shaunteva Ashley, in check last time out with just ten points on 3-of-10 shooting. Ashley's 19.7 points per game on average lead the NSIC and are two points ahead of second-place, UMD junior forward
Taylor Meyer, at 17.8 ppg in conference play. Junior forward Nicole Kerkhoff scored 18 points and grabbed 16 boards against the Bulldogs, and she averaged 12.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per outing this year.
• Meyer and Flood each netted 20+ points for the Bulldogs against Augustana, which has allowed 70.9 points per game this season while scoring a league-high 76.3. Augustana is third in assists and second in steals, led by Ashley who ranks first in assists per game (5.5), second in steals (2.1), and third in assist-turnover ratio (+2.1)
The Bulldogs and Vikings will take the court in Sioux Falls at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night with a chance to advance to the Sanford Center and the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament on the line.
