The UMD women's basketball team bested Bemidji in a huge 78-49 road outing on Saturday. Two days after establishing a new season-high win margin of 25 against Minnesota Crookston, the Bulldogs outdid themselves against the Beavers, winning by 29. With the victory, UMD improves to 6-2 on the year and 3-0 in NSIC play.

It was a slow start for this one, a Brook Olson two-pointer at the 9:54 mark holding as the only bucket of the game until almost three minutes later at 7:07. That's when Olson made herself known once again with a three-ball to extend UMD's lead to 5-0. 

Things took on a bit more pace from that point onwards. This was due in part to the Bulldogs establishing the framework for what would become a key to their success in the first half- defense leading to transition offense. At the 5:26 mark, Taytum Rhoades secured a steal. Five seconds later, Taya Hakamaki had gone the other way for a layup. 7-2 UMD. Towards the end of the frame at the 1:43 mark, Hakamaki snagged a steal of her own. Olson cashed this in for a bucket on the other end to make it 15-9 UMD. All things considered, the Bulldog ended the first frame with four steals to their name. They also had two blocks that had done their part in steering play in the other direction.

Intermixed in this transition action was an early three-point barrage from the Bulldogs. Nine of the points in UMD's 17-11 lead by the end of the half had come from beyond the arc. 

Three Bulldogs already had five or points by the quarter's end, and each had done so efficiently. Olson led the way with seven points on 3-5 shooting. Ella Gilbetson had five of her own on 2-2 shooting from the field. Hakamaki had five points (on 2-3 shooting), an assist, a rebound and a steal. She was all over the court in the first frame- a preview of things to come. Helping to facilitate all of this action was Maesyn Thiesen, who already had four assists after a quarter. 

The second quarter was more of the same for UMD- only this time, the Bulldogs played the entire 10 minutes with the increased tempo it'd taken them some time to establish before.

 It took UMD just under two minutes to establish a 10-point lead at 21-11 off of a Gilberston layup. After the Bulldogs went up 12 off of a three from (who else) Olson to make it 26-14 with 6:06 to play, their lead wouldn't dip below double digits the rest of the way. Hakamaki was integral to UMD being able to hold its lead, and it wouldn't take long for her to show why. The very next bucket of the game after the 26-14 mark was a fast-break layup from Hakamaki off of a steal from… Hakamaki. She'd close with eight points for the quarter, a Bulldog-high. The junior guard tallied these points on 3-4 shooting from the field.  She also had both of her team's steals in the frame. Olson also continued her work from the frame before, notching seven points (on 3-4 shooting of her own), two rebounds and an assist.

As a team, the Bulldogs were even more lights-out from all over the court than they'd been before. UMD shot 9–14 from the field (64.3%) and a near-unstoppable 4-5 (80%) from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs notched these totals en route to 22 total points in the quarter, leaving them with a 39-22 lead at the break.

On the half, Olson had a team-high 14 points on 6-9 (66.7%) shooting from the field. The graduate forward also had four rebounds. Taya Hakamaki had 13 points of her own on 5-7 (71.4%) shooting from three. The junior guard also had a team-leading three assists. UMD was 16-30 (53.3%) from the field overall and 7-12 (58.3%) from three.

Somehow, the Bulldogs managed to outdo themselves once again in the third. Olson made sure of it.

The guard scored 17 of UMD's 24 points on the half by herself. She was pretty meticulous about it, too- she did all of it on 7-9 (77.8%) shooting from the field. Like clockwork, the Bulldog defense held Bemidji to just 11 points for the third-consecutive quarter.  This was good enough for the Bulldogs to head into the final frame with a huge 30-point advantage at 63-33. 

The Beavers would finally break out of their 11-centric curse in the fourth quarter. In fact, they even outscored UMD in the frame… 16-15.

The Bulldogs were able to keep afloat in the fourth in large part because of a big-time performance from a certain 6-2 forward off the bench: Lexi Karge. In just 5:57 of play in the quarter, Karge had eight points on 4-5 shooting from the field. She also grabbed two boards. Speaking of boards, it helped the Bulldogs' efforts that they were able to win the rebound battle 10-6. It wasn't quite a 30-piece, but this stand from UMD was enough for it to secure a massive 78-49 win all the same. 

Speaking of 30-pieces… enter Olson. The forward had a season-high 31 points on the afternoon. In fact, this was Olson's highest scoring night in more than a calendar year, dating back to a similar performance against Emporia State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March. On Saturday, Olson did it all on 13-20 (65%) shooting from the court. With all this talk about personal bests, there's no better time to re-introduce Hakamaki. The guard closed the day with 18 points, the highest mark not just for her season but for her career, too. Why not do it going 7-9 (57.1%) from the field and 4-5 from three? And who says you have to stop at one personal milestone in a single game- Hakamaki also had a career-best five steals in the contest. She had half of the Bulldogs' 10 takeaways for the game by herself. Gluing all of this together was a performance like Thiesen's. She grabbed seven defensive rebounds on one end (eight rebounds total) and eight assists on the other. Each of those eights were season-bests.

UMD closed out the game a hair under 50% from the field at 49.2% on 32-65 shooting. The importance of the three-ball stayed true for the Bulldogs for most of the game, and it showed- they closed at 9-20 (40.9%) from beyond the arc. 

Bemidji was led by 16 points from fifth-year standout Trinity Yoder. Yoder also had five boards on the day. Alyssa Hill was big for the Beavers too, notching 14 points of her own while grabbing a team-leading six rebounds. As a team, Bemidji shot 17-48 (35.4%) from the field and 5-13 (38.5%) from three. 


POST GAME WITH PEARSON

As has already been showcased, several Bulldogs popped off of the scoresheet on Saturday.

One performance that can't go without getting some more time in the spotlight is that of Hakamaki. To UMD head coach Mandy Pearson, an effort like the one the guard put up against the Beavers is the result of her ever-evolving skill set aligning with an understanding of her role on the team that's growing just the same. 

"Taya is a very talented and versatile player who continues to improve every week," Pearson said. "She's learning how to fit in more and more on both ends of the floor by being patient and aggressive at the same time."

But not even a career night should totally overshadow what was a total team effort on Saturday. 

Behind every Bulldog with a big figure on the stats sheet is another doing ever-important work off the page to make that kind of performance possible. This was the sentiment that defined the game- has defined the season, really- for Pearson. 

"That's the fun part about our team - we have so many unselfish players who are willing to do all the little things on every possession," Pearson said. "Sometimes those things show up in the stats like Maesyn's 8 assists and 8 rebounds today or Brooke's 31 points, but things people don't notice as much are things like today, Kaylee Nelson held one of their shooters to only three total shots for the game. It's fun to coach a team that cares so much about doing all the little things - even when they don't get a ton of credit for it. They just take pride in getting the job done."