Aberdeen, S.D.- Fans of hot starts and strong finishes alike would've found something to enjoy in No. 16 UMD women's basketball's 75-62 victory over Northern State in Aberdeen on Saturday. Same with fans of history- this win was enough for the Bulldogs to lock up the NSIC North Title with four games still to be played. A 17-1 conference mark got it done, one that serves as the foundation for a 20-3 overall record. This is UMD's fourth-consecutive season of securing at least a share of North Division gold. This team is on some run right now.

And these Bulldogs sure were playing like it throughout the first quarter on Saturday. It didn't necessarily happen right away- it was actually the Wolves that secured the game's first two-score lead at 6-2 by the 8:33 mark. At that point… UMD simply got to work. 

Welcome back, Ella Gilbertson. In what was her return to the lineup following a four-game absence due to injury, the junior didn't wait long to make her presence known. She potted a layup to give UMD its first lead of the night at 8-6. Make it a 6-0 scoreless run. And though the Wolves would score shortly thereafter to tie things back up, the Bulldogs weren't quite done scoring yet themselves. By the 4:09 mark, Lexi Karge had given UMD a two-possession lead of its own at 12-8 by way of a layup. Laurie Rogers would pot a bucket with 3:19 left to put the Wolves back within a score at 12-10… only for the Bulldogs to close out the quarter on a mini 7-1 run to take a 19-11 advantage into quarter number two. The 17-5 run that had sparked since the score was 6-2 Northern, the 7-1 run within a run… whichever one means more to you, both were capped off by a Brooke Olson triple with just 33 seconds left in the first frame.

It was scoring by committee in its purest form from UMD in the opening 10 minutes. Six different Bulldogs closed the first quarter with points to their names. Leading the pack was Olson, who had five on a 2-3 shooting effort from the floor. Two other Bulldogs had potted more than one basket, those being Karge (2-2 shooting) and Maesyn Thiesen (2-4 shooting). The latter also had three steals, three rebounds and two assists in the opening frame. Rogers had led the Wolves through 10 minutes with six points and four rebounds.

As a unit, UMD shot a crisp 9-16 (56.3%) from the field in quarter number one. Northern State was held to just a 3-11 (27.3%) effort.

The second frame proved to be a slightly different story. 

It didn't look like much would change early on, though. Right at the top of the quarter, a pair of free throws from Madelyn Granica gave UMD the first double-digit lead of the game at 21-11. But this is precisely when the Wolves started to come alive. By the 7:36 mark, the Bulldog lead was all the way down to a single score at 24-21 by way of a massive 10-3 Northern heater. Taytum Rhoades was briefly able to ease the tension with a layup to push the advantage back to two buckets at 25-21… key word briefly. With 4:10 to play, there was a new team in charge of this one. The Wolves had managed to jump out to a 30-26 lead of their own, one signed off on by a Rogers layup. Northern had just started the second quarter by outscoring UMD 19-7. 

But all was far from lost for the Bulldogs- quite the contrary. It was UMD that proceeded to jump out on a 9-2 counter attack, one that ultimately re-secured them the lead at 33-32 with just 1:51 left until the break. The Bulldogs have a huge Hakamaki and-one effort to thank for capping that run off. A Kailee Oliverson bucket would ultimately send the Wolves into halftime with the lead, but only by a single point at a score of 34-33.

Olson had led the offensive attack for UMD through 20 minutes with seven points on 3-6 shooting. Right behind her were a whopping five Bulldogs that tallied four points. Take a deep (mental) breath, because here comes the list: Gilbertson, Granica, Karge, Rhoades and Thiesen. Rhoades also had four rebounds and four assists through a half of play- Thiesen wasn't far behind with four boards and three dimes of her own. Northern's leading scorer after two quarters was Oliverson with 10 points on 3-6 shooting. Rogers had eight points to pair with five rebounds.

A lot of the third period consisted of the Bulldogs trying to totally chip away a Wolves' lead that just wouldn't fully budge. A pair of Granica free throws, for example, had trimmed Northern's lead all the way down to a point at 42-41 with 3:32 to play only for the Wolves to kick it back up to four at 45-41 less than 30 seconds later. Northern's advantage was still four when a Rianna Fillipi layup made it 47-43 with only 1:42 to go until the final frame. No better time than the present to start heating back up, regardless of when that present is. Little time? Little problem. UMD ended the third quarter on an 8-2 run dating back to that 47-43 score, two Thiesen makes at the charity stripe with just 34 seconds to go fully securing a 51-49 Bulldog lead moving into the fourth. 

Once again it was Olson that had been UMD's biggest point producer, the graduate guard adding six more points to her tally throughout the third frame. And once again, four was the magic number- three Bulldogs tied at that point mark this time around. Granica, Rhoades and Thiesen, to be exact. Thiesen also had two more assists. 

Momentum, momentum, momentum. UMD had done really good work to secure it at the end of the third- and fast. It's only right that the Bulldogs would reap some benefits from it in quarter number four. Perhaps UMD's 53-49 advantage with 9:29 left in the game looks unsuspecting, but hindsight gives us a new lens to look through- the Bulldogs wouldn't lead by less than two scores the rest of the game past that point. And when Rhoades eventually sank two attempts at the charity stripe with 3:51 remaining to make it 69-59, that all but sealed the deal- double-digit Bulldog advantage until the final buzzer, peaking at 14. When said buzzer rang out, the final score read 75-62 UMD

 The Bulldogs put on an absolute clinic in the final frame from start to finish, one that saw them outscore Northern 24-13. It's not just that, though- check the shooting splits. A 6-10 team shooting effort from the field. A whopping 11-11 mark from the line. And hey, if you're only going to shoot once from beyond the arc in a quarter, you might as well make that too, right? Meanwhile, Northern had gone just 5-15 from the court in the closing 10 minutes. The Wolves went 0-4 from deep. 

Two Bulldogs tabulated double-digit points in half number two. Olson's up first with 13 on a 4-8 mark from the field. The graduate forward also had four rebounds. Right behind her was Rhoades, whose 10 points came by rather unconventional means- a perfect 10-10 mark from the line. The senior guard also grabbed four rebounds. At the top of the crop for the Wolves through the final 20 minutes was Filllipi, who had 10 points and two assists.

When all was said and done, it was Olson that had led the newly crowned North Champs in this one with 20 points on an exact 7-14 shooting effort overall and a 3-5 mark from deep. The graduate forward also had six rebounds and two assists. Rhoades finished with 14 points to go with an impressive assembly of eight rebounds and five assists. Granica and Thiesen had oddly similar scoring lines. Thiesen had 10 points on 3-6 shooting and a 4-4 mark from the line. Granica had 10 points… also with a 4-4 effort from the charity stripe. Only difference is, Granica took one less shot. But Thiesen's stat read isn't quite over yet- she also had seven rebounds and six assists in this one. 

When looking at the Bulldogs as a total unit, one stat stands out above all the rest- their 23-24 (95.8%) free-throw shooting spectacle. Comparatively, the Wolves went just 11-16 (68.8%) from the stripe.

Speaking of the Wolves, they were led in this one by Oliverson, who put up 16 points on 6-14 shooting to go with six rebounds. Fillipi had 13 points to tag along with seven rebounds and three assists. The last Northern player to hit double figures was Rogers, who had 10 points and eight rebounds.

POST-GAME WITH PEARSON

For as well as the Bulldogs played in the last 10 minutes of this one, it's tough to know if they would've been able to do the same thing had they not put themselves in such a good position in the first 10.

UMD was simply a well-oiled machine in the opening frame. Those tend to rely on a wide number of parts to achieve full functionality, and it was no different here. To UMD head coach Mandy Pearson, it was precisely the Bulldogs' ability to get everyone touches and spread the wealth around that led to their early successes.

"Our ball movement was really good tonight to start the game - I thought we were working really well together," Pearson said.

Six total assists contributing towards six different unique UMD scorers would certainly align with that.

But of course, no conversation about this game would be complete without touching on that final frame. The Bulldogs had entered it with the lead, of course, but the Wolves' second quarter effort still loomed large. It would've been impressive enough for UMD to simply keep on trekking and win by, say, two or three points- it was another thing entirely for them to be able to blow the lid off of the game like it did. To Pearson, it was all made possible by the team's ability to generally keep its head down and continue to work while also honing in on a specific point of attack in the process. 

"They stuck together and did the little things we needed to to win," Pearson said. "Northern is a tough and gritty team who can really rebound the ball, so boxing out and securing the basketball was really important."

All of this is easier said than done when you're in as tight of a contest as the Bulldogs found themselves in to open the fourth frame- they did it anyways. The rebound battle shows it (8-6 UMD), their time with the lead through the final 10 minutes shows it… basically every measurable metric shows it.

And for that, UMD gets to enjoy NSIC North glory. These next four contests serve as an opportunity for the Bulldogs to work towards something even greater- an outright NSIC Championship. 

But there's more to it than that, though. Well, of course, there's the whole NCAA Championship thing later in the year, but it goes even beyond that. Time and time again this season, Pearson has sung a similar note: one about improvement. This team is already 20-3, 17-1 in one of the best conferences out there. It's gotten to this point by getting better and better as the year has gone on. And while it's hard- perhaps even a bit scary- to believe it, it's more than possible that this group will only improve even more with time. This is only a touchstone. It's one Pearson is certainly cognizant of… but it's still a touchstone.

"I'm proud of how well this group has stuck together and how we continue working hard to get better everyday," Pearson said.