The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's basketball team fell to the No. 3 Colorado Mesa University, fueled by a low-scoring second quarter of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Elite Eight round, with a final score of 81-59.

Lexi Karge (17) and Claire Bjorge (16) led the scoring effort, combining for 33 points of UMD's 59. Karge hit 7-17 from the field and 1-1 beyond the arc, while Bjorge hit 7-15 from the field.

Entering the first quarter, UMD advanced to a 6-4 lead after three minutes, helped by a four-point effort from Bjorge. The lead continued to swap sides with Grace Counts earning the Bulldogs' last lead before halftime at 17-14. From then on, CMU took a lead with 24 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Mavericks continued with a lead throughout the second quarter, expanding to a 51-29 lead by the halftime break as the Bulldogs fell to 18.8% (3-16) from the field. In that time, CMU took 20 shots from the free throw line, scoring 19 while UMD was only awarded 10, converting it to five points.

After halftime, the Mavericks held the Bulldogs behind by 17 or more points for the remainder of the match. UMD was successful in raising its shooting percentage from 18.75% to over 33% across the final two quarters, but could not close the gap.



Overall, the Bulldogs were defeated from the free-throw line, giving up 24 fouls while being awarded 13. A staggering 56 points combined between the top two scorers for the Mavericks kept the Bulldogs out of reach, while Colorado Mesa outrebounded UMD 44 to 25.

UMD completes the season with the program's fifth Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) North Division title, 16th NCAA Tournament appearance, and second trip to the Elite Eight field. En route to their Elite Eight appearance, the team toppled a No. 1-seeded Minnesota University Mankato in the opening round, a No. 4-seeded Central Missouri University in the second round, and a No. 2-seeded Concordia University St. Paul in the Central Region Championship to become the first No. 8 seed to advance to the Elite Eight field since 2011.