The month of February did not treat the University of Minnesota Duluth well throughout the final weeks of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season, but the old
cliché says everyone begins anew at 0-0 to start the postseason. The Bulldogs will look to embrace that fresh slate, hosting the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament for the second straight season and looking for payback against South Division foe the University of Sioux Falls this Wednesday evening at Romano Gym.
UMD (15-13, 11-11 NSIC) finished with the fourth seed in the NSIC North division despite backing into the playoffs the past few weeks. The winner between the Bulldogs and Cougars will move on to take on the winner of South Division top seed No. 5 Augustana (S.D.) University and the North Division eighth seed University of Minnesota Crookston on Saturday evening.
AGAINST THE COUGARS | 16-12, 11-11 NSIC, T-4 South
Sioux Falls defeated Concordia University, St. Paul 78-63 last time out to snap a two-game winless streak, finishing tied for fourth place in the South Division but missing out on home court advantage due to a tiebreaker against Upper Iowa University ... the Cougars defeated UMD 95-73 in the teams' lone meeting earlier this season on January 29 at Romano Gym ... junior guard Mack Johnson scored 25 points against the Bulldogs, hitting 7-of-10 three pointers and 9-of-16 shots overall while also adding seven assists on the night. He finished the NSIC regular season tenth in scoring average at 17.2 PPG ... USF had four players score 15+ points on that night but has just three players averaging double digits in scoring ... the Cougars shot 58.6 percent from three-point range, hitting 17 threes while averaging 8.9 per game this season ... head coach Chris Johnson will look to extend his eighth season on the bench for Sioux Falls ... UMD is 2-2 all-time against the Cougars including the defeat earlier this season.
FREE THROWSUMD was swept in its final weekend road trip last weekend as the Bulldogs were narrowly defeated by the University of Mary 68-67 last Friday night and 90-82 against Minot State University on Saturday ... in UMD's first meeting with USF, senior forward
Brendon Pineda scored a team-high 23 points, hitting four three-pointers against the Cougars. Pineda averaged 14.0 points and a team-best 6.0 rebounds per game last weekend with UMD falling in a pair of tough, hard-fought match-ups against Mary and Minot State ... senior guard
Taylor Lavery scored a team-high 21.5 PPG on the weekend while hitting just a trio of three-pointers on the weekend. He finished 13-of-31 from the floor (41.9 percent) and 14-of-18 at the free throw line ... senior guard
Pierre Newton shot 40.0 percent on the weekend, averaging 17.5 points, while hitting 15-of-16 free throws in two games.
HOW TO FOLLOWLive Stats & VideoWHAT'S NEXT?UMD will hope to embrace its home court advantage and have a healthy crowd on-hand as the Bulldogs look to make it two straight postseason wins at Romano Gym after last season's return to postseason hosting duties. UMD and Sioux Falls will tip off the NSIC Tournament on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Duluth.
