UMD women's basketball battled back to secure a big 69-66 road victory against Mary in overtime on Saturday. The Bulldogs bump up to 8-2 overall on the year with the win and stay perfect in conference play at 5-0.
It was a back-and-forth affair at the start of this one, with Mary and UMD trading off single-possession leads. It would take until the 3:32 mark of the half for either squad to take a two-score advantage, an honor the Bulldogs held when they went up five at a score of 14-9. It was a Brooke Olson layup on the fast break by way of a Taytum Rhoades steal that had gotten the job done. Alas, it would take under a minute for the Marauders to bring themselves back to within a basket at 14-11 with 2:39 left in the quarter. Soon enough, Mary was within just a point of drawing even, the score 15-14 UMD with just 1:05 left. Never fear- Taya Hakamaki is here. The junior guard, who's been electric so far in NSIC play, continued to impress with a big three at the buzzer to send the Bulldogs into the locker room up 18-14. Hakamaki was the team's leading scorer through 10 minutes with eight points on 3-5 shooting.
Then came a second quarter the Bulldogs would like to forget. After trailing by as many as seven points at a score of 25-18 UMD at the 7:40 mark of the frame, the Marauders came charging back into the contest. Just a little over two minutes later, Mary had drawn even at 27 all with 5:15 left until halftime. By the time there was just 1:02 left in the half, the Marauders had amassed a seven-point advantage of their own. They'd stretch that out to nine, the highest lead either team had held in the game, off of a pair of free throws from Megan Voit to close things out. This left the score at 38-29 Mary going into the break.
Megan Zander and Reese Wishart were huge for Mary in the quarter, Zander scoring nine on 3-5 shooting and Wishart contributing seven on 3-3 shooting of her own. They led a Marauders squad that went 8-12 from the field as a team in the quarter. Mary also went a perfect 7-7 from the line. UMD shot 5-13 in the frame. All things considered, the Marauders had outscored the Bulldogs 24-11.
UMD looked strong out of the gate to open the second half, forcing the issue by scoring four unanswered points to draw to within five at 38-33 Mary. There'd be no drawing even for the Bulldogs just yet. The Marauders would proceed to go on a 13-3 run en route to taking a game-high 15-point lead at 51-36 with just 3:54 remaining in the third.
Bend, but don't break. Slowly but surely, the Bulldogs started to chip away at the deficit.
A huge part of this effort: relentless defense turning into offense. With 1:21 remaining in the quarter, Hakamaki snagged a steal that led to her getting fouled. She'd drain both of her attempts at the stripe to make it a 10-point game at 51-41 Mary. The Marauders weren't having a lot of fun trying to inbound the ball in this stretch- in their very next crack at it, Maesyn Thiesen forced a steal of her own. Ella Gilbertson would end up getting fouled afterwards, granting her a trip to the line. She'd make one to cut Mary's lead down to single digits at 51-42. Who else but Hakamaki to send us off into the fourth quarter. With just a tick left on the clock, the guard drove in for her second last-second make of the contest. Just like that, the Bulldogs had done good work in trimming down the Marauders' hold on the game. It helps that UMD had held them to just 6-17 shooting from the field in the quarter. Heading into the fourth, it was just 51-44 Mary.
Down the stretch, the Bulldogs just kept working.
The Marauders would maintain their lead most of the fourth quarter, but the best they could usually do was to keep the Bulldogs within a possession's reach of either tying or taking the lead. Stifling UMD defense limited the Marauders to just six total points in the frame on 2-11 (18.2%) shooting from the field. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs were pretty selective with their own shots- but when they took them, they tended to go in. Four Bulldogs closed with either two or one attempt(s) from the field in the quarter- all of them operated at a clip of 50% or higher. Helping to fuel these efforts was a monster performance from Olson on the defensive boards- she had five in this frame alone.
In spite of all of this, with just 2:03 remaining in the game, Mary still held a five-point lead at 56-51. Remember that fab four of Bulldogs that were very particular with their attempts in the fourth? One of them was Gilbertson. She found her calling beyond the arc. It would be her only shot of the entire frame- and she drilled it. 56-54 Mary with just 33 seconds on the clock. The Bulldogs would foul six seconds later to put Wishart at the line. She'd make only one of her attempts, leaving the game within arm's reach for UMD. This proved to be a sign of things to come for the Marauders. Mary would generate four more free throw attempts in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter- they'd go 0-4. Despite the odds, the door was still open for the Bulldogs. They had 14 seconds to jolt through it after a miss at the line from Moriku Hakim. Hakamaki grabbed the board. After a bit of back-and-forth passing, the ball ended up in the hands of Thiesen. With about four seconds left in the game, a shot left the graduate guard's hands from beyond the arc. With a hair over two seconds on the clock, it found the bottom of the net. 57-57. There'd be no half-court prayer even attempted by the Marauders, and the game would head to OT.
What a second half it'd proven to be for UMD. The Bulldogs had thrown down a reverse card on the Marauders and put together their own 28-19 stretch. Gilbertson had been an offensive revelation for UMD in this run, closing the second end of the game with a team-leading eight points on 3-4 shooting. The true story of the half, though, had been UMD's ability to keep the Marauders off the score sheet. Mary went just 8-28 (28.6%) from the field through the closing 20 minutes of regulation. That's compared to a 13-24 (54.2%) outing in the first quarter. The Marauders also shot just 1-7 from three in the second half.
Though the Bulldogs entered the extra frame with momentum on their side, the Marauders didn't just lay down and admit defeat. After Olson opened things up with a layup to give UMD its first lead since a score of 27-24, Mary answered right back with a pair of Carly Kottsick free throws and a Wishart make to retain control at 61-59. Back-and-forth things would go until the final buzzer- in just five minutes of overtime, the lead changed hands seven times. Ultimately, all that matters is who holds it at triple zeros. It looked like that might be the Marauders after Wishart sank a layup to put her team up 66-65 with just 35 seconds remaining. This drew a timeout from UMD. Less than 10 seconds removed from the break, the Bulldogs found themselves at the line after a foul on Olson. She'd sink both attempts from the stripe to put UMD back up a point at 67-66 with just 25 ticks left. When Kottstick would miss a layup the other way out of a Mary timeout, it would again be Olson that the Marauders would foul in hopes of extending the game. Unfortunately for them, Olson had other plans. The graduate forward drained two more free throws to leave UMD up three with just six seconds on the clock. This time around, Mary would put up a prayer before the buzzer sounded- but it'd go unanswered. Instead, the Bulldogs would escape Bismarck with a huge 69-66 win.
As is already evident, Olson was absolutely massive for UMD in the overtime frame. She paired those four-straight makes at the stripe to close the game with 2-2 shooting from the field to score eight of the Bulldogs' 12 OT points. She also grabbed two rebounds and chucked in an assist for good measure. On the other end of the court, UMD's hard work continued to pay dividends. The Marauders shot just 3-8 (37.5%) in extra time.
POST-GAME WITH PEARSON
What makes a win like this so special for UMD is that it had to battle through so much adversity to secure it. A major example of that is how the team was able to respond to a tough second quarter.
In trying to jostle with a problem like that second frame, it helps to first understand what went wrong. UMD head coach Mandy Pearson had a pretty clear diagnosis for this. She'd also dialed up some remedies at the break to aid the Bulldogs' efforts moving forward.
"We had some foul trouble where we had to go to a smaller line up in the 2nd quarter - they had a clear size advantage and used it to get a lead," Pearson said. "We talked (at the half) about ball pressure and making it more difficult to get post touches."
Safe to say those adjustments were just what the doctor ordered.
The numbers from the second half say so, at least. So too did the eye test. If those two forces aren't enough to convince you, take it from Pearson herself.
"Our guards did an awesome job of pressuring the ball," Pearson said. "Maesyn Thiesen was incredible in the full court, getting her hands on the ball and forcing their players to rush which led to some steals. Brooke Olson also took over the paint and clamped down defensively inside. Those two along with everyone else really stepped it up to make UMary uncomfortable."
Another name to join the list of Bulldog heroes in this one is Gilbertson. The junior guard was called upon to play a lion's share of the game in this one, and she certainly responded well, closing with a career-high 20 points on 8-13 (61.5%) shooting from the field.
Pearson had some high praise for Gilbertson after the game, making particular note of her gauge for when to engage.
"Ella is a really smart player - she did a great job of being aggressive at the right times," Pearson said. "She's very versatile, patient and a great team player."
