One night after claiming sole possession of the fourth place spot in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North division, the University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team picked up another big NSIC win over the University of Mary (12-14; 8-12 NSIC) 69-66 in overtime Saturday afternoon in its final home game of the regular season. 

The Bulldogs (15-9; 12-8 NSIC) are coming off a night in which they took down the Minot State University Beavers (13-11; 10-10 NSIC) 70-61 to claim the fourth spot in the NSIC North. 

It was senior night for UMD, which focused on seniors Amanda Hunt (forward), Anna Monke (forward), Allison Olley (center) and Ayo Porte (forward). While Hunt has been injured for the entirety of the 2017-18 season, Monke, Olley, and Porte combined for eight points, seven rebounds and three assists in a 25 minutes of action off the bench. 

UMD won the turnover advantage 10-0 after the first half, and it showed on the stat sheet. The Bulldogs outscored the Marauders 12-0 in the first 20 minutes off of turnovers. 

With 34 seconds remaining, Olley hauled in a big defensive rebound with the score at 67-66 in favor of UMD.

Following Olley's rebound, the Bulldogs called a 30-second timeout. Coming out of the timeout, junior guard Sammy Kozlowski beat four Marauder defenders to find freshman forward Payton Kahl for a layup to put the Bulldogs up 69-66 with 11 seconds remaining. 

Freshman forward Sarah Grow led the team in scoring with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Tonight marks the second time this season Grow led UMD in points. The other occasion occurred back on Jan. 12 when Grow scored 21 against Winona State University.

The Bulldogs reached a double-digit win mark at home (10-3) for the first time since the 2011-12 season when they finished 10-4 in Romano Gymnasium. 

Prior to her made free throws in the early minutes of the second quarter, freshman guard Ann Simonet had converted on her last 15 points - five baskets - off three's.

UMD will now head into arguably its toughest weekend of the season. The Bulldogs will first take on the Northern State University Wolves (22-4; 17-3 NSIC) on Friday (Feb. 16) at 6 p.m in the Joseph H. Barnett Center. NSU ranks second in the NSIC North.

UMD will finish out its regular season against Minnesota State University-Moorhead (21-3; 18-2 NSIC) on Saturday at 4 p.m in the Nemzek Hall Fieldhouse. After a win over the University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles (6-18; 6-14 NSIC) on Saturday, the Dragons have now won 15 straight and hold the top spot in the NSIC North. MSUM received votes in the latest Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll.


UMD sits two games behind St. Cloud State University (17-7; 14-6 NSIC) in the NSIC North division standings for third place, but SCSU holds the tie-breaker having swept UMD this season.