THE OPENING TIP

The UMD women's basketball team (6-2, 3-0 conf.) heads out to North Dakota this weekend for its first full NSIC road trip of the season. The Bulldogs stop in Minot for a matchup against the Beavers on Friday, Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. before a trek to Bismark to meet Mary on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3:30 p.m.
 

LAST TIME OUT

Safe to say this past week could have gone worse for the Bulldogs.

UMD opened the festivities with a home contest against Minnesota Crookston on Thursday. The Bulldogs left the first quarter with a 23-10 advantage. At half, that lead had ballooned to nearly 30 at a score of 43-16. UMD was able to ride this early scoring frenzy to an eventual 83-58 victory on home court. Four different Bulldogs ended in double figures, including Brooke Olson's 21-point effort on 9-17 (52.9%?) shooting from the field. 

Next came a meeting with the Beavers in Bemidji on Saturday. This second verse was pretty similar to the first- the distribution was just a little different this time around. UMD outdid themselves in each of the first three quarters, scoring 17, then 22 and finally a game-high 24 points. All the while, Bemidji got stuck at 11, scoring that amount three times in a row. This left things at 63-33 heading into the final frame. The Bulldogs wouldn't quite seal the deal on a 30-point victory, but they'd come as close as you can without pulling it off- the final score was 78-49 UMD.

It'd been a star-studded night for the Bulldogs all along the way on Saturday. Olson ended with a season-high 31 points on 13-20 shooting from the field. As if that wasn't enough, wait until you hear about Taya Hakamaki. The junior guard's hard work all throughout the year culminated in bests not only for her season but for her career. Hakamaki closed with a personal-high 18 points (on 7-9 shooting from the field/4-5 shooting from three, no less). She also racked up an impressive five steals, another career milestone.
 

RANKINGS ROUNDUP

When the D2SIDA's newest Regional Poll released on Monday, the Bulldogs found themselves up two spots from No. 7 to No. 5. UMD also went back to receiving votes in the D2SIDA's Top 25 Poll this week after not receiving votes last week. The Bulldogs received votes in the WBCA Coaches Poll as they have since the preseason.

STATS STATUS REPORT

Heading into the weekend, Olson leads the team in points per game with 18.8. She also has the team-high in the rebounds department with 6.4 a night. Maesyn Thiesen leads all Bulldogs with 3.9 assists a game. Hakamaki also presents some stats to make notice of, especially after her efforts last week. The guard's working at a clip of 45.8% from three, tops on the team. She's averaging 2.4 steals a night now.

The Bulldogs also hold some team stats that are of note nationally. Through eight games, UMD is holding opponents to just 55.4 points a contest, leaving the Bulldog team defense at 26th in the country. On both sides of the ball, UMD has been disciplined. The Bulldogs are all the way at 16th in fouls per game, averaging just 13.8 a night.

1.8K FOR BROOKE

On Thursday, Olson crossed the 1,800-point plateau for her career. Only three other Bulldogs had made this mark before her, those being Dina Kangas (2,810), Lindsey Dietz (2,114) and Kelli Ritzer (1,887). Olson closed the week at 1,847 total points, just 40 shy of surpassing Ritzer for third all-time in UMD scoring.  

SCOUTING REPORT ON MINOT STATE

Ahead of the 2021-22 season, Minot State introduced Mike Brandt as the new head coach of the Beavers' women's basketball program. Brandt was fresh on the heels of a successful decade-plus stint out in South Carolina with fellow DII school USC Aiken. Under Brandt's watch, the Pacers had gone a combined 254-166, a 60.48% winning percentage across 14 seasons. In fact, USC Aiken had just three below-.500 campaigns in this time. Brandt was joining a Minot program that had just gone 4-10 in a COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, 7-20 in the last full-length campaign the year before that. Suffice it to say, he was looking to swing the pendulum in a new direction.

But all good things take time. In Brandt's first stint with the Beavers last year, the team went 8-18, failing to qualify for the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament. 

At this point in his coaching career, Brandt is no stranger to the reality of roster turnover. He got his first look at it with his new program the summer before the 2022-23 season. Amber Stevahn, the star Beaver guard that had led the team in scoring the last two seasons, most recently with a 17.5 PPG mark on 51.1% shooting from the field, graduated. So too did impact center Anna Counts, who paired 9.4 points a game with a team-high average of 6.1 rebounds in her final stint as a Beaver. 

In spite of all of this, the Beavers have managed to start the 2022-23 season above water, holding a 5-4 record across their first nine contests. This is due in large part to a pair of upperclassmen helping to steady the ship after the departure of the most recent graduating class. Kate Heard has been particularly huge in these efforts. The guard averaged a stout 11.8 points a contest last year, good for second on the team. This year, she's elevated her offensive game a step further. Heard's averaged 15.9 points through the first nine matchups of her senior season, a team-leading mark. She's second on the team in average rebounds with 4.3, too. Also important has been the presence of junior Natasha Elliott, who averages 6.1 points a game (third on the team) while grabbing a team-leading 5.4 boards a night. And talk about instant impact- freshman center Emily Srejma is already second on the team in scoring with seven points on 52.1% shooting from the field.

If the Bulldogs are in search of a particular strategy to implement against the Beavers, it should probably start with copy-pasting the defensive plan of the last eight games. Minot currently sits at a -2.4 point differential, allowing 61.8 points a night while scoring an average of just 59.4. Meanwhile, UMD's defense has been able to power it to a scoring margin of +8.8 so far this year (64.2 points scored to 55.4 points given up). 

Regardless of the Bulldogs' success on the defensive end come Friday, it'll be a motivated Minot squad that they'll be meeting on the Beavers' home court. At 1-2 in conference action so far this season, Minot would surely like to even that record. 

SCOUTING REPORT ON MARY

This year's Marauders have had to weather some early adversity.

Mary entered the season knowing it'd have to kick things off without the services of Lexie Schneider, who's currently sidelined due to an injury. The shoes of the graduate guard aren't easy ones to fill. Schneider was almost a walking double-double last year, averaging team-highs of 14.2 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. Figures like that make sense of the fact that the guard has earned all-NSIC honors twice in her career. All of this goes without mentioning Macy Williams. It's not just see you soon with her- the guard graduated over the summer. With her went 10.5 points and a team-leading 3.5 assists a game.

Speaking of weather… as if these absences weren't enough, a literal snowstorm forced Mary to cancel the Central Region Challenge it was supposed to host to kick off the year. With this, the Marauders' first two games of the season, by effect their first two home contests, were lost. Mary didn't start competition until November 16 and had to do so on the road against Black Hills State, a matchup the Marauders would drop 77-67. 

Not long removed from thinking it'd be able to open its season on home soil, Mary next headed all the way to Hawaii.

It'd be a mixed bag for the Marauders in the ensuing Malika Sports Thanksgiving Tournament. Mary would drop the first matchup of their tournament slate against Tampa, but its encounter with host Hawaii Hilo went a little bit better- the Marauders would take that contest 72-44. The momentum from that game traveled with Mary on the flight back to the Midwest. The Marauders have parlayed that victory into three more to kick off conference play, the last two coming in Bismark (at long last). That's the only NSIC action Mary's faced so far this season, so while their 4-2 overall record isn't without a few blemishes, the same can't be said with their 3-0 conference mark.

All things considered, not a bad start to what's been an unusual opening to the 2022-23 campaign.

It sure helps that even without Williams and (temporarily) Schneider, Mary returned two double-digit scorers from the year before. Megan Voit averaged 11 points a game as a junior. Through the first six games of her senior swansong, the guard's averaged 8.8 points a night. Then there's Megan Zander. The guard joined Voit in having a notable junior season with 11.3 points a night to pair with 5.3 boards a contest. As a senior, Zander's rebounding touch has gone nowhere- and her scoring has only improved. She's averaging a team-high 16.3 points a game while maintaining an average of 5.5 boards. Zander's also found herself playing the role of distributor more often this year, as she averages 2.3 assists a night so far.

It sure doesn't hurt when sure-thing talent is supplemented with growth elsewhere on the roster. Enter Addison Rozell.

Rozell was already a worthwhile contributor in her freshman campaign, averaging 5.6 points night. Still… don't think anyone's complaining that she's nearly doubled that tally so far in her sophomore year. The forward's averaging 10.7 points a night through six games, good for second on the team. 

Mary head coach Rick Neumann's been at the helm of his alma-mater for more than a decade now, this being his 11th season as head coach. Through it all, he's certainly seen success. He's just three years removed from a personal-best 22-11 season, the most wins the team had secured in general since 2004-05. However, the last two years have represented a bit of a slump. After going 5-9 in 2020-21, the Marauders went just 14-16 in their next full season of competition in 2021-22. Still, with four starters and 12 total players returning to the fold for another go-around, there seems to be little cause for concern in Bismarck. This team has the experience and talent needed to bring the Marauders back to the right side of the .500 line. They've done good work towards this goal even without Schneider- imagine what things will look like with her back on the court. 
 

THE BROADCAST

Catch all of this weekend's road action through the NSIC Network by clicking the links below: 

vs Minot State (Friday, Dec. 9 @ 5:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3iPzyeM

vs Mary (Saturday, Dec. 10 @ 3:30 p.m.):  bit.ly/3VZEhZv
 

UP NEXT

It'll be time for UMD to host back-to-back NSIC opponents for the first time next weekend as the Bulldogs will enjoy their first sustained homestand of the year. Northern State comes to town on Friday, Dec. 16 (5:30 p.m.)  ahead of MSU Moorhead on Saturday, Dec. 17 (3:30 p.m.). These will be the last two contests before a brief Christmas-break pause that lasts until New Year's Eve.