The University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team will face the No. 4-seeded University of Central Missouri in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament second round on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. inside the Taylor Center.
 
BULLDOGS AND THE NATIONAL TOURNAMENT: UMD enters the tournament as the No. 8 seed in the NCAA Central Region after holding a No. 7 ranking in the final week of the NCAA Central Regional rankings. They completed the season with a 20-8 overall record, and this entry marks the program's 16th tournament appearance and sixth under head coach Mandy Pearson.
 
Under Pearson's leadership, the Bulldogs have reached the NCAA Tournament six times with one Championship entry in the 2022-23 season. She now holds a 3-2 record in the first round (not including the canceled 2019-20 season). In second-round appearances, the Bulldogs have advanced once under Pearson, which was the 2022-23 season, where the Bulldogs went all the way to the championship round.
 
NSIC NORTH DIVISION CHAMPIONS: With a 17-5 record, the Bulldogs clinched the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) North Division title. It marks the program's fifth title and first since the 2022-23 season.
 
CONTINUED NSIC QUARTERFINAL EXCELLENCE: The last time the Bulldogs were in the NSIC Tournament Quarterfinals was the 2023-24 season, where they overcame Concordia University St. Paul 66-57. Coach Pearson and the Bulldogs have not lost a quarterfinal match since the 2016-17 season, and now own a 7-0 quarterfinal record since then (2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and now 2025-26).
 
ALL-CONFERENCE CLUB: Myra Moorjani, Claire Bjorge, and Lexi Karge of the University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team have been selected to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) All-Conference teams.
 
Senior guard from Eden Prairie, Minn., Moorjani earned her first NSIC All-Conference First Team selection. Currently, she is on track to average 13.6 points, 1.4 steals, 3.1 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game. She holds or ties multiple of the team's season individual game-highs in field goal attempts (18), three-point field goals made (5), three-point field goal attempts (11), free throws made (8), and assists (10). Overall, she has 339 points, 34 steals, eight blocks, 76 assists, and 87 rebounds ahead of competition in the NSIC Tournament Quarterfinals.
 
Bjorge, a sophomore shooting guard and product of De Pere, Wis., earns her first NSIC All-Conference Second Team selection. Ahead of the NSIC Tournament Quarterfinals, she is averaging 13 points, 1.8 steals, 3.1 assists, and 3.3 rebounds per game. She currently holds the team's season individual game-highs in points (25), field goals made (10), and steals (7). At the end of the regular season, she has 337 points, 47 steals, nine blocks, 80 assists, and 85 rebounds.
 
Senior forward from Mankato, Minn., Karge earned her first NSIC All-Conference Second Team selection. Currently, she is on pace to average 11.2 points, 1.1 blocks, and 5 .3 rebounds per game. She is the team's individual single-game leader in free throw attempts (11) and blocked shots (4) this season. Ahead of the Quarterfinal round this weekend, she has 290 points, 11 steals, 28 blocks, 23 assists, and 139 rebounds. She also hit the 1,000-career points milestone this season.
 
KARGE EARNS 1,000 CAREER POINTS: Senior forward Lexi Karge joined the 1,000 career points club off a five-point effort against the University of Minnesota Crookston. She is the first Bulldog to hit that mark since Brooke Olson in the 2020-21 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.
 
NSIC LEADERS (As of 2/28): The team holds fourth in the conference for scoring offense (72.4), third for scoring margin (10.0), first in scoring defense (62.4 avg/g), second in field goal percentage (44.4%), third in opponent field goal percentage (39.9%), fifth in three-point field goals (7.6), third in opponent three-point field goals (29.2%), second in turnover margin (2.92), second in assist/turnover ratio (1.18), fifth in blocked shots (3.81 avg/g), and fifth in assists (15.00).
 
Individually, Myra Moorjani ranks third in three-point field goal percentage (38%) and second in three pointers per game (2.3). 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.
 
EARLIER IN THE NCAA FIRST ROUND: The University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team went on the road in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament as the No. 8 seed in the Central Region, shutting down the No. 1-seeded Minnesota State University Mankato in 72-63 fashion.
 
40 points in the paint and 45 rebounds (nine offensive) to Minnesota State Mankato's 27 are just some of the big highlights that kept the game rolling in favor of the Bulldogs. Lexi Karge (16), Claire Bjorge (15), and Ashley Fritz (10) led the scoring effort for UMD with a combined 41 points between the trio. Fritz also led the team with a game-changing four steals.
 
Minnesota State Mankato broke out to a 4-0 lead in the first minute of the match. A determined six-point effort by Karge brought the Bulldogs back within two points at 8-6 with 7:14 to go in the first quarter. Bjorge (2), Karly Jusczak (2), and Fritz (2) combined for a 6-3 scoring run to bring UMD's first lead of the match at 12-11. The Mavericks reclaimed the lead after but were unable to hold off the Bulldogs, falling behind 18-15 by the end of the quarter.
 
UMD picked right up where they left off, firing to a 24-17 lead in the first two minutes with Karge leading the effort with four points. A 9-3 scoring effort by MSU forced the UMD lead down to one at 27-26 before Vanessa Bickford and Myra Moorjani silenced the effort with a 31-26 score by the three-minute mark. However, the Mavericks' accuracy picked up on a 9-2 run to head into halftime with the lead at 35-33.
 
MSU held off UMD for the first four minutes on an 11-6 scoring run, holding a seven-point lead at 46-39. Jusczak (4), Grace Counts (3), Karge (2), and Bjorge (2) combined for an unanswered 12 points to force a 51-46 lead over the Mavericks with a minute to go in the third quarter. After Bjorge's layup, Fritz stole the ball and broke loose to hold a 55-48 lead into the final 10 minutes.
 
Maria Counts led the first five minutes of scoring for UMD with six points to hold a 62-57 lead with 5:22 remaining. The final five minutes saw the Bulldogs advance to a 72-63 lead, holding the nation's top scoring offense to six points in the final minutes.
 
Defensively, the Bulldogs held the top scoring offense in the nation to a total of 63 points. Heading into the matchup, the Mavericks were on track to average 92.1 points per game. MSU was also the second in the nation for forcing turnovers with 32.7 per game, but was only able to force 14 steals during the match and 25 turnovers.
 
SCOUTING THE NO. 4 SEEDED JENNIES: This will mark the Bulldogs first meeting with Central Missouri. Reese Schaaf leads UCM, currently averaging 19.6 points, 1.8 steals, 2.7 assists, and 9.9 rebounds per game. She is currently shooting 53.6% (224-418) from the field, 44.1% (41-93) from the three-point line, and 84.6% (137-162) from the free-throw line.