The University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team bounced back from its first home loss of the season with a colossal 83-56 win over Wayne State College on the road Friday.
Along with a colossal victory, another milestone was earned for head coach
Mandy Pearson, adding her 200
th victory as a Bulldog. This added to her 300
th career win milestone, which she earned two weeks ago against St. Cloud State University. She now has 302 career victories and 200 wins as a Bulldog head coach in her 11
th season.
The Bulldogs were led by
Myra Moorjani with 17 points while shooting 54.5% (6-11) from the field and 71.4% (5-7) beyond the arc. She also tallied six assists and four rebounds.
Wayne State claimed the first points of the match, 11 seconds in off a layup for the first lead. Moorjani (8),
Claire Bjorge (3), and
Lexi Karge (2) responded with a 13-4 scoring run to march ahead 13-6 in the next three minutes. The Wildcats stuck with the Bulldogs in the final six minutes, with UMD maintaining the scoring run advantage by one for a 21-13 lead into the second quarter.
The Bulldogs continued to pile on the scoring with a 6-4 run straight out of the gate in the first four minutes with two points each from Bjorge,
Maria Counts, and Karge. Another powerful set of scoring in the final minutes by Karge (3), Bjorge (3),
Karly Jusczak (2), and Counts (2) put the lead at 16 points by halftime in 37-21 fashion.
Coming out of halftime, the Bulldogs never had to look back, holding on to an over 20-point advantage for the majority of the remainder. The closest the Wildcats would get to the Bulldogs came with 4:55 remaining in the third quarter, getting the UMD lead down to 16 points. Fritz,
Lexi Karlen, Counts, and Bjorge combined to get the lead back over 20 points by the end of the third quarter, 60-36.
The remaining 10 minutes had the Wildcats fall behind as much as 33 points before ending with a final score of 83-56.
Overall, UMD hit 49.3% (33-67) from the field, 54.2% (13-24) beyond the arc, and 57.1% (4-7) from the free throw line. The Bulldogs shot 50% and above from the field in every quarter except the second. UMD out-rebounded WSC 39-34, with Karge leading the individual effort with eight (four offensive).
The Bulldogs continue the road trip against Augustana University tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. inside the Elmen Center.
