THE OPENING TIP: The University of Minnesota Duluth will play its final regular season contests with the Univerisity of Minnesota Crookston (Feb. 21) and Bemidji State University (Feb. 22) before hosting the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Playoffs.

SCOUTING REPORT ON THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CROOKSTON: The Golden Eagles have had a tough stretch the past few weeks. After winning two games on seperate weekends, UMC would fall to the University of Sioux Falls (77-59), a loss which would begin a five game skid that the Golden Eagles are currently riding. They would drop contests to Minnesota State University (89-68), Concordia-St. Paul (72-59), Minot State University (77-66) and the University of Mary (78-70). After dropping both games last weekend, UMC currently sits at 4-20 on the season while going 3-17 in the NSIC regular season conference play. The 3-17 record has the Golden Eagles currently sitting in the final spot (8th) of the Northern DIvsion of the NSIC and a 15th place spot in the conference overall. The man behind the bench UMC is Mike Roysland. Roysland, in his 14th season as head coach (all with the Golden Eagles) has carried a 127-252 (.335) record over the span of his coaching career.
Leading the way in terms of scoring this year is a duo. Mary Burke and Abby Guidinger have been at the top of the board for the Golden Eagles with Bren Fox not far behind. Burke has been able to slightly edge out Guidinger by .1 points (Burke 9.1, Guidinger 9.0) on the season thus far. Fox has been a steady No. 3 with 7.4 points per game and has played in 4-6 minutes less than both of the top to scorers. Fox has paced the squad in rebounds with 6.4 per game with Julia Peplinski not too far behind at 6.1 per outing. Kylie post has dished to plenty of players on the year, leading the team with 42 assists, while Emma Carpenter has kept very close in pace with 40 on the year and Guidinger has been right behind both players with 39 on the season. Peplinski has had the best shooting percentage on the squard, dropping 48.4% (59-122) of shots taken from the floor.

SCOUTING REPORT ON BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY: Before winning their last game against Minot State Unviersity (83-54), the Beavers were on a eight game losing stretch. BSU had fallen to Winona State University (76-67), Minot State University (72-65), the University of Mary (76-70), the University of Sioux Falls (73-64), Southwest Minnesota State University (69-58), Concordia-St. Paul (75-61), Minnesota State University (84-62) and the University of Mary again (72-60). After winning against Minot State, the Beavers are now 8-16 on the season while going 5-15 in the NSIC. With that 5-15 NSIC record, BSU sits in 6th place in the Northern Division while sitting in 13th in the overall standings. Chelsea DeVille is currently in her 5th season as head coach (all with the Beavers). In those five season, DeVille has scrapped together a 32-101 (.241) record.
Leading the way for the Beavers in the scoring department Trinity Myer. Myer is the only player on BSU that has been able to average double digits on the season for the Beavers with 13.5 per night. Two players have been able to average just under 10 points per night, with Taylor Bray and Rachael Heittola both dropping 9.8 a night. Brooklyn Bachmann has been a solid rebounder for the squad, grabbing 5.6 a night with Bray nipping at her heels with 4.6 a night. Bachmann is just behind Sidney Zerr in minutes played a night with Zerr playing 34.8 a night. Myer is leading the team with 95 assists and Bachmann behind her with 75 on the season. Bachman has been able to swat away 11 shots oo the season and grab 20 steals, with Myer taking the cake on steals with 41 on the season. Calire Wolhowe leads the squad this season in shots beyond the arc, dropping 51 3-pointers on the season, making 48.6% (51-105) of deep range shots.

THE SERIES: When the Golden Eagles and Bulldogs last met, it was a battle to the finish line with UMD coming out on top by one point, 68-67. In the last five meetings, the Bulldogs have taken four while UMC has won one, winning one of the two matchups last season. UMD has had an upper hand in the last decade, dropping only two contests in 21 meetings.
The Beavers have had no better luck against the Bulldogs, with UMD besting BSU 19 out of 20 times in the past 10 years. The last time these two teams met was a little over a month ago, when the Bulldogs bested the Beavers in Romano by a score of 62-41. UMD is currently riding a five game win streak against BSU.

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs swept last weekend and would clinch the top spot in the Northern Division as well as the No. 1 seed in the NSIC overall. UMD first beat out Northern State on Valentines day by a score of 65-54. The Bulldogs would then host Minnesota State University of Moorhead to close out regular season play at Romano, beating the Dragons on Senior day by a whopping 23 points, 70-47. UMD improved to 18-2 in the NSIC and 21-5 overall on the season.

NO. 2 IN THE CENTRAL REGION: The Bulldogs were tabbed as the No. 2 team in the Central Region of the first NCAA DII Regional Rankings. Two other teams from the NSIC, the University of Sioux Falls (No. 3) and St. Cloud State University (No. 6), also made the top-10 in the Central Region.

HOW THEY RANK: Below is a look at the Bulldogs overall record, division rank, and rank in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association DII Poll, as well as their opponents.

SCHOOL	OVERALL	NSIC DIV.	WBCA
UMD	21-5	1ST	NR
UMC	4-20	8TH	NR
BSU	8-16	6TH	NR

THE BROADCAST: The game between the Bulldogs and the Huskies will be available through live streaming capabilities at the following link:

UMDBulldogs.com/watch

Live stats are available through the same link, following the live stats button: UMDBulldogs.com/watch

THAT'S OUR BALL: The Bulldogs currently average 35.1 rebounds per game, a big part of that is Brooke Olson, who is sitting 13th in the NSIC for rebounds per game, averaging 6.6 per game. Katie Stark is another top rebounder, who is grabbing an averaging of 5.3 per game, good for 24th in the NSIC and Sarah Grow is averaging 5.2 per game.

YOU CAN'T SCORE ON US: The Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in the NSIC in scoring defense, giving up an average of 59.2 points per game. That is also good for 49th across the DII landscape.

PASS ME THE ROCK: The Bulldogs are currently in 2nd in the NSIC in assists per game, averaging 16.23, and 2nd for total assists with 422.  Sophomore guard Maesyn Thiesen is leading the way, sitting 2nd NSIC in assists per game with 4.2 (64th in DII) and sits in 3rd in total assists with 110. Ann Simonet has helped along the way, with an average of 3.5 per game (9th in the NSIC) and 90 overall (8th in the NSIC).

TOP OF THE BOARD: UMD ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the NSIC in every single stat category as a team in 2018-19.  Along with ranking top or number two in every category, the Bulldogs ranked in the top six nationally (DII) in seven of those categories.

POINTS ON POINTS: The Bulldogs currently rank 7th overall in overall points in the NSIC. Brooke Olson has been a big part of the attack for UMD, averaging 15.7 points per game, 5th in the NSIC.

BRICK CITY: UMD ranks 1st in the NSIC (37th in DII) in the blocked shots per game category (1st in total blocked shots with 110 (19th in DII)), averaging 4.23 per game. Sarah Grow has lead the team in blocked shots per game (2.0, 52 total) and sits in 2nd in the NSIC. Katie Stark has been a huge part of that stat as well, where she currently sits 10th in the conference with an average of 0.9 per game (21 total). Junior forward Payton Kahl is in the mix with .5 per game (12 total) sitting in 25th in the NSIC.

VALUE POSSESSIONS: The Bulldogs are sitting in 2nd in the NSIC in the assist/turnover ratio category with a 1.29 assist to every turnover. They sit in 9th in the DII landscape in said category.

ON TAP: The Bulldogs will be hosting the first round of the NSIC Playoffs with the opponent TBD. The game will take place in Romano Gymnasium on Wed. Feb 26.