The University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team is set to face the University of Minnesota Crookston tomorrow at 5 p.m. inside the Lysaker Gymnasium in their second matchup of the season.

TWO MATCHES REMAIN: With two games remaining, the Bulldogs stand atop the North Division with UMary trailing by one loss. Overall, UMD trails the undefeated Minnesota State University Mankato who has a 20-0 record as the South Division leader.

The NSIC Basketball Tournament is a twelve-team tournament and will be seeded using overall conference win percentage. 

KARGE ON THE 1,000 POINTS HUNT: Lexi Karge is only seven points outside of the 1,000 career points milestone and is averaging 11.2 points per game. 

The last Bulldog to enter the club was the dynamic Brooke Olson, who is the second overall scorer in UMD history, hitting both the 1,000 point mark in the 2020-21 season and the 2,000 mark in the 2022-23 season.

HEAD COACH MANDY PEARSON HITS 300 CAREER WINS AND 200 BULLDOG VICTORIES: With the victory over St. Cloud State, it marked head coach Mandy Pearson's 300th career coaching victory, who has been at the helm of the program since 2015. Two weeks later she marked her 200th UMD coaching victory with the win over Wayne State.

Since taking over the program in 2015, she has led the team to five NCAA II Tournament berths, three of which happened back-to-back, with one going all the way to the Championship in the 2022-23 season. Pearson has an overall record of 185-96 with 140-67 in conference play and three NSIC regular-season champion finishes.

10-0 NSIC START: Through the first ten matches, UMD dominated with ten straight wins with victories against Bemidji State (74-63), Minnesota Crookston (76-54), MSU Moorhead (73-69), Northern State (69-63), Jamestown (82-36), Minot State (83-69), UMary (80-65), Bemidji State (78-50), Sioux Falls (57-42), and SMSU (69-65). This came before falling narrowly to the only undefeated team in the NSIC, #2 Minnesota State Mankato, who is the favorite to win the NSIC South Division.

NSIC LEADERS: The team holds fifth in the conference for scoring offense (72), third for scoring margin (8.7), first in scoring defense (63.3 avg/g), fifth in field goal percentage (43.7%), third in opponent field goal percentage (40.2%), fifth in opponent three-point field goals (29.7%), second in turnover margin (3.00), second in assist/turnover ratio (1.20), fourth in blocked shots (3.75 avg/g), and fifth in assists (14.96).

Individually, Myra Moorjani ranks third in three-point field goal percentage (37.2%) and fourth in three pointers per game (2.2). Lexi Karge also ranks fifth in blocked shots (1.1 avg/g).

FIRST NSIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  Claire Bjorge earned both her career's first NSIC North Division Player of the Week award and the team's first of the 2025-26 season. Bjorge earned the selection after scoring a career high and team-leading 25 points in the victory over the University of Minnesota Crookston (76-54). In that effort, she shot an impressive 66.7% (10-15) from the field. Throughout the week, she averaged 21 points and seven rebounds in two conference wins. In the second matchup, she added another 17 points in the 73-69 win over Minnesota State University Moorhead.

SIX AND BULLDOG: The Bulldogs shattered the No. 15 (WBCA) ranked Northern Michigan Wildcats in a stunning 85-70 victory on their home court. 

Entering the matchup, the Wildcats were on an unbeaten six-game win streak to start the season. That is, until the Bulldogs came to town. In another double-digit point game for four UMD athletes, Claire Bjorge led the way with 20 points, with Myra Moorjani and Lexi Karge following one point behind. Grace Counts put up an 11-point game for the top four UMD scorers to combine for 69 points of 85 total. Karge also led the Bulldogs with eight rebounds to keep the ball out of the Wildcats' hands. 

In all, UMD shot 56.9% in field goals, 56.3% from beyond the arc, and 85.7% from the free throw line. Overall, the team combined for season highs in points, field goals made, and free throws made.

EARLIER AGAINST CROOKSTON: UMD earned a 2-0 start to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) competition after overtaking the University of Minnesota Crookston 76-54 inside Romano Gymnasium.

Combining for nearly half of the team's total points was Claire Bjorge with a career high 25 points and Myra Moorjani with 22 points. Bjorge shot 66.7% (10-15) from the field while Moorjani hit 50% (9-18).

Entering the match, the Bulldogs and Golden Eagles kept pace with each other, changing leads multiple times throughout the first eight minutes. As just over two minutes remained in the first quarter, a three-pointer from Drew Johnston began a 7-0 scoring run for a 22-14 UMD advantage to complete the first quarter.

The Bulldogs picked up where they left off at the start of the second quarter. Moorjani broke away nine seconds in to force a 10-point lead. UMD continued to hold off Minnesota Crookston, going on an 8-6 scoring run to maintain an eight-point lead with 7:09 remaining before halftime. A combined effort from Moorjani, Ashley Fritz, Bjorge, and Vanessa Bickford kept the Golden Eagles on the outside looking in on an 8-5 scoring effort to force a 38-27 lead into the halftime break.

Coming out of halftime, the Golden Eagles looked like they might flip the script and ended up climbing within four points with 6:09 to go in the quarter. With under six minutes left in the quarter, the Bulldogs proceeded with an 8-2 scoring run to get back to a 10-point lead, helped by a six-point effort from Bjorge. From then on, UMD held the advantage for the duration to complete the match with a 76-54 final score.

As a unit, the team combined for their highest amount of field goals made (32) and gathered their most rebounds (46) of the season. Leading the rebound effort was Karly Jusczak with eight rebounds (three offensive). Overall, the team outshot the Golden Eagles with an accuracy of 45.1% (32-71) from the field to their 40.4% (23-57). They doubled Minnesota Crookston on points off turnovers with 16 and forced more points in the paint with 46 to their 34.

NSIC REVIVES NORTH/SOUTH DIVISION: With the reformation of the North and South Divisions, the University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team has been selected to finish third in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) North Division, with Lexi Karge selected as the Player to Watch for the Bulldogs.

In the NSIC's annual preseason poll, UMD has been selected to finish third in the North Division, receiving 37 points. They fall behind the University of Mary in second (42 points) and Minnesota State University Moorhead in first (43 points). Overall, the team ranks middle of the pack in eighth with 139 points to fall one point behind MSUM, University of Mary in sixth (152), St. Cloud State University in fifth (155), and Southwestern Minnesota State University in fourth (172). Concordia University St. Paul splits second with the University of Sioux Falls (202), with Minnesota State University Mankato out ahead (215). 

The North Division has seen the Bulldogs finish first in the last four seasons from 2019-2023. The season prior, they managed a second-place finish. The conference spent the last two seasons with a single division structure where the maroon and gold settled for a combined 22-22 record in NSIC competition.

Senior forward Lexi Karge has been tapped as the NSIC's Bulldog Player to Watch after averaging a team-second high 11 points per game last season. She was also second on the team in average of rebounds per game (6.1), blocked shots (21), field goals made (126), and free throws made (41).