The University of Minnesota Duluth began the 2016 calendar year with five straight victories, but the Bulldogs have stumbled in six of their last eight, seeing their undefeated home record sullied twice in four games at Romano Gymnasium. This week, second-place UMD (15-9, 11-7 Northern Sun Intercollegiatge Conference) plays host to the first- and third-place teams in the NSIC North Division in No. 11 Minnesota State University-Moorhead and Northern State University, respectivefully. The Bulldogs will honor two charities and their six seniors on the weekend as well.
Friday night will be a tropical-themed night with prize giveaways for fans while UMD also celebrates Locks of Love with Regis Salon sponsoring haircuts for donation at halftime of the game. Saturday night will be senior night and school spirit themed while honoring the Play 4Kay foundation promoting breast cancer awareness in the name of former North Carolina State University head coach Kay Yow.
While none of the Bulldog seniors have spent four seasons playing with the team, they've each made significant impacts during their time with the team. Senior transfers
Junior Coleman,
Kristofer Jackson,
Taylor Lavery,
Pierre Newton, and
Brendon Pineda join student manager-turned-center
Jake Harder in wrapping up their UMD careers in 2016. Senior guard
Pierre Newton, named a Player to Watch by the NSIC entering 2015-16, has made his biggest impact on the team this season including his epic 42-point performance against Southwest Minnesota State University on Jan. 30. His 16.6 points per game average is near-pace for a top-5 career performance at UMD. Senior guard
Taylor Lavery already made his mark on the record book hitting 14-of-14 free throws to match the program single game performance on Jan. 9 this season against Bemidji State University.
Senior forward
Brendon Pineda has averaged 13.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per outing, starting every game during the past two seasons. His career shooting percentage is 50.5 percentage. Senior guard
Junior Coleman was forced to sit out the 2014-15 season but returned this year to become the Bulldogs' sixth-man, averaging 8.9 points per game primarily in a reserve role. Senior swing forward
Kristofer Jackson has spent four seasons at UMD but also sat out last season. This year, he's become a spark off the bench, but in 2013, he matched the Bulldog program record with six blocks against the University of Wisconsin-Stout on November 19. Harder, who spent time as UMD's team manager, joined the Bulldogs roster officially to fill a much-needed big man role following the injury to
Brett Ervin ('15) prior to the 2013-14 season. He's played in 43 games and this year, fought back from a foot injury to rejoin the Bulldogs for one last go-around at midseason.
SCOUTING THE DRAGONS | 23-4, 15-3 NSIC (First/North)
No. 11 MSU Moorhead finally matched up with top-ranked Augustana (S.D.) University, falling 94-86 last time out against the Vikings but had won 7-of-8 previously entering the Saturday showdown ... the Dragons knocked off UMD 90-80 earlier this season on Dec. 12, 2015 ... senior center Isaac Sevlie netted a game-high 23 points on the night, nearly on-par with his season average of 22.0. He also leads MSUM with 7.0 rebounds per outing ... junior forward Ayob Ayob averages 10.8 points per game, but netted 17 points off the bench against the Bulldogs ... Moorhead has six players averaging 10+ points in league play this year ... head coach Chad Walthall is in his sixth season leading the Dragons ... despite the defeat earlier this year, UMD is 77-40 all-time against MSU Moorhead. The Bulldogs defeated a then-No. 14-ranked Dragons team, 60-58 at Romano Gym last season on Dec. 13, 2014.
SCOUTING THE WOLVES | 14-10, 10-8 NSIC (Third/North)
Northern State handed Augustana (S.D.) its first defeat of the conference season last Friday night and has won two-straight after falling in 3-of-4 on the road to close out January ... the Wolves will meet St. Cloud State before coming to Duluth on Saturday night. UMD defeated NSU 85-72 earlier this season in Aberdeen, South Dakota on Dec. 11, 2015 ... junior guard Darin Peterka averages 14.3 points per game on the season, and collected 24 points and 10 rebounds against UMD in the only game he has not started yet this season ... senior guard Skye Warwick has scored 14.7 points per game this year and scored 19 points against UMD, including 4-of-9 from three-point range ... head coach Paul Sather has the Wolves climbing the ranks in his sixth season with NSU ... the Bulldogs are 40-32 all-time against Northern State including the win earlier this season.
FREE THROWSUMD continued a streak of winless Friday night outings despite scoring 88 points, falling 90-88 to Upper Iowa and then could not rebound falling 81-60 to Winona State on Saturday night ...
Pierre Newton continued to put up big offensive numbers for the Bulldogs, scoring 24.5 points per game on the weekend, averaging a team-high 6.0 rebounds while shooting 53.3 percent on the week (16-of-30) ...
Brendon Pineda averaged 19.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per outing on the weekend, shooting 44.8 percent ... Newton and Pineda scored over two-thirds of the Bulldogs' points in Saturday night's defeat against Winona State, and UMD got just eight points off its bench.
FOLLOW LIVELive Stats & Video (both games)
WHO'S NEXT?UMD will make its final home appearances of the regular season this weekend. The Bulldogs host MSU Moorhead on Friday night. Opening tip is set for 6:00 p.m.
