UMD Women Win by 4

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

Up seven with three minutes remaining in the second half, the University of Minnesota Duluth made the plays it needed to late to hold off Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rival the University of Minnesota-Crookston 71-67 on Friday night in Crookston.

UMD (3-3, 1-1 NSIC) climbs back to the .500 mark and notches its first NSIC victory of the season, while knocking the Golden Eagles (2-4, 1-1 NSIC) down to an even mark through two conference games.

TOP SCORERS
• Junior forward Taylor Meyer scored 15 points in the first half, finishing with a game-high 27 on 12-of-17 shooting. Senior guard Jessica Newman scored 13 of her 17 points in the second half. Freshman forward Anna Monke fell a basket short of her first career double-double but led UMD with 11 rebounds on the night, including eight on the defensive end.
• Junior guard Alexa Thielman scored 19 points to lead UMC, while junior forward Katrina Moenkedick added twelve. The pair tied with three others with a team-high four boards as the Bulldogs out-rebounded UMC 41-35.

The two teams volleyed for position in the first half despite UMD shooting 41.9 percent and holding Crookston to a 9-of-33 (27.3 percent) frame. The two teams were a combined 2-of-13 from three-point range, but the Golden Eagles got to the line ten times and made good on each to keep the game tied 29-29 at the half. The Bulldogs scored the first six points of the second half and set the tone out of the break, keeping UMC at bay basically throughout the final 20 minutes. Despite giving up five tie scores and a pair of leads to the home team, UMD always seemed to have an answer, never falling behind by more than a basket with a pair of late threes – the first by Newman to put the Bulldogs up six, and later another by Flood that put them up by seven as they held on to pick up their first conference victory of the season.

Head coach Annette Wiles inches ever closer to history, now with 397 overall wins in her career and 100 with the UMD. The Bulldogs shot 50.9 percent for the game, including a 4-of-6 mark from three-point range in the second half to hold off Crookston, who finished shooting just 31.7 percent on the night.

UP NEXT
UMD continues its road trip tomorrow when the Bulldogs head to Bemidji to take on the Beavers of Bemidji State University. Opening tip is set for 4:00 p.m.