DATE: Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 | 8:00 p.m. CT
SITE: Missoula, Mont. | Dahlberg Arena
RADIO: KSNR 100.3 FM (Mitch Wigness)
WEB AUDIO: UNDSports.com
WEB VIDEO: UNDSports.com | BigSkyTV.org
LIVE STATS: gogriz.com
TWITTER: UNDWBasketball
DATE: Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013 | 3:00 p.m. CT
SITE: Bozeman, Mont. | Brick Breeden Fieldhouse
RADIO: KSNR 100.3 FM (Mitch Wigness)
WEB AUDIO: UNDSports.com
WEB VIDEO: BigSkyTV.org
LIVE STATS: MSUBobcats.com
TWITTER: UNDWBasketball
ON TAP
UND-- winners of three straight-- will open a four-game road swing in
Montana Thursday, part of six of the next eight away from home. North
Dakota already owns a four-game winning streak this season and will be
aiming to match that against the Lady Griz.
LAST TIME OUT
The UND bench combined to score 45 points-- including career bests from
both of its freshmen-- in a 73-49 win over Weber State Saturday
afternoon at Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Mia Loyd led all scorers with
15 points while Josie Dillon connected on three
triples to pave the way for the UND reserves.
SCOUTING THE LADY GRIZ (9-4, 3-1 Big Sky)
Montana sits just a half-game behind Big Sky leader Northern Colorado,
one of three schools tied for second place with a 3-1 league mark ... UM
is tied for the top spot in the Big Sky in scoring margin (+7.5) ...
UM’s turnover margin is +6.77, turning opponents
over at an 18.2 clip on average and only returning the favor 11.5 times
per game, easily the lowest turnover total in the league ... Kenzie De
Boer leads the Lady Griz in scoring with her 14.4 points per game
average, fourth-best in the conference ... Katie
Baker (2.1 bpg) and Carly Selvig (2.0 bpg) are second and third in the
Big Sky in blocks per game.
SCOUTING THE BOBCATS (7-6, 3-1 Big Sky)
MSU is also 3-1 in conference play, tied with UM and Eastern Washington
for second place heading into the weekend ... Montana State boasts the
top team field goal percentage in the league so far this season (.418)
...MSU averages 65.6 points per game and allows
just 58.1 on defense ... Rachel Semansky, the reigning conference
player of the week, leads the squad with a 14.4 points per game average
... Kalli Durham adds 13.9 ppg ... Semansky’s .593 field goal percentage
sets the pace in the Big Sky.
SERIES HISTORY... MONTANA
UM leads the all-time series between the schools, 3-1 ... UND lone win
came on a neutral floor back in 1984 (at MSU-Billings) ... The teams
have met in each of the past two seasons with Montana grabbing
double-digit wins on each occasion (60-39 last season,
69-59 in 2010-11) ... Montana will make its first visit to North Dakota
in the series on Feb. 9.
SERIES HISTORY... MONTANA STATE
MSU, thanks to three straight wins, leads the all-time series, 3-2 ...
UND played a home-and-home with the Bobcats two seasons ago, falling
67-63 and 70-54 ... The first game in the series was a commanding 80-47
UND win back on Dec. 18, 1976 at North Dakota
State.
REJECTION ROW
Through games of Jan. 6, UND ranked 35th in all of NCAA Division I in
blocked shots per game, turning aside 4.9 shots on average. Sophomore
center Emily Evers leads the charge with her 1.85 bpg clip, good for
52nd in the nation.
FRESHMEN FEATS
UND freshmen Mia Loyd and Josie Dillon made their marks in the 73-49 win
over Weber State Saturday. Both players recorded career highs as UND
etched 45 bench points. Loyd tallied 15 points to lead all scorers while
Dillon tripled three times for a new career-high
point total (9).
SIX OF ONE, HALF DOZEN OF ANOTHER...
Loyd’s 15-point effort gave UND its sixth different leading scorer in a
game this season. Madi Buck (4) and Emily Evers (4) lead the pack,
followed by Megan Lauck (3), Nicole Smart (2) and Katie Houdek (1).
GOT TO BE STARTING SOMETHING...
UND’s starting five of Brianna Williams, Nicole Smart, Megan Lauck, Madi
Buck and Emily Evers has combined to go 6-1 this season when they start
together. UND started nine different players this season and has had
six different starting combinations.
WON’T BACK DOWN
Last Thursday’s matchup with Idaho State was the eighth against a
postseason team from a season ago for UND. Through its first 12 games,
UND has played a pair of teams that made the NCAA Tournament and six
more that advanced to the WNIT last year.
NCAA- Iowa State, Idaho State; WNIT- Harvard, Duquesne, South Florida, Drake, Northern Colorado, Utah.
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE...
UND’s has played five teams in the top 104 in RPI (as of Jan. 9) in NCAA
Division I. Three of those teams have three losses or less, including
#20 Iowa State, who is 11-1. See the pdf for a look at some of the tough non-conference
slate below and their updated records and
RPI (according to RPIratings.com) as of Jan. 9.
BUCK STARTS HERE
Junior forward Madi Buck was recognized as the Big Sky Conference Player
of the Week Jan. 2 for her performance in UND’s 62-56 upset win at Utah
Dec. 29. The Bismarck, N.D. native scored a team-high 18 points and
grabbed six rebounds to go along with a career-high
five blocked shots in the win. She became the second North Dakota
player to earn the award after Emily Evers grabbed honors earlier in the
season.
“CENTER” OF ATTENTION
Sophomore center Emily Evers was named co-Big Sky Conference Player of
the Week Dec. 10. Evers broke out in the win over Air Force last Tuesday
by establishing new career bests with 17 points and 15 rebounds in the
blowout victory over the Falcons. She also
added two assists and a pair of blocks in just 14 minutes of action.
She followed that performance with another 17-point effort in Saturday’s
overtime win against Drake. She notched yet another double-double-- her
third of her career-- with 10 rebounds as
well. Evers chipped-in four blocks and two steals and sealed the win in
the final second of overtime with a free throw make.
UND’s OVERTIME OVER TIME
Before its Dec. 8 win over Drake, North Dakota had not played in an
overtime contest since a 81-79 win at South Dakota back on Jan. 13,
2007. With the win over the Bulldogs, UND extended its overtime winning
streak to three straight with its last loss in an
overtime game a Mar. 15, 2004 defeat in the NCAA Division II North
Central Regional Final against South Dakota State (72-70). All time, UND
is now 14-9 in games decided in extra frames, including a perfect 3-0
mark when it goes beyond one extra period.
A BIT ABOUT LAST SEASON (21-11)
The University of North Dakota women’s basketball team picked up the
Great West Conference regular-season and postseason tournament titles,
winning nine straight games to finish 9-1 in league play ... Center
Allyssa Wall (North Sioux City, S.D.) was named to
the GWC All-Tournament team and was voted the tournament’s most
valuable player ... Also named to the all-tournament team was center
Emily Evers (Grand Forks, N.D.), who averaged a team-high 13.0 ppg, 5.0
rpg, and shot 74.4 percent from the field ... UND advanced
to its first-ever NCAA Division I postseason play, heading to Seattle
University for the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational
(WBI).
RECORD REWIND
The University of North Dakota women’s basketball program holds an
811-315 (.720) record all-time since the first game was played in 1974.
OPEN SEASON
The season-opening loss to Harvard pushed UND’s record in season openers
to 29-8 all-time. North Dakota is now 19-5 in season openers at home,
including losses each of the past two seasons.
NO CUPCAKES
The home opener is the start of a very challenging part of UND’s
schedule. Each of the first four opponents qualified for a postseason
tournament a season ago. In addition, only one of those games is at home
for UND (vs. Harvard). Iowa State went to the NCAA
Tournament while Harvard, Duquesne and South Florida all competed in
the WNIT.
PROTECT AND SERVE
All-time, North Dakota is 442-89 (.832) when it comes to defending its
own court. The team played at the UND Fieldhouse/Hyslop Sports Center
before moving into its current home at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center
in 2004-05.
YOU BETTY, YOU BETTY, YOU BET!
North Dakota is 108-20 (.844) all-time at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, which opened prior to the 2004-05 season.
Season records at ‘The Betty’
2004-05 -------------------- 13-2
2005-06 -------------------- 19-1
2006-07 -------------------- 17-2
2007-08 -------------------- 14-1
2008-09 -------------------- 13-0
2009-10 -------------------- 8-4
2010-11 -------------------- 9-5
2011-12 -------------------- 10-3
2012-13 -------------------- 5-2
UND FIFTH, SIXTH IN BIG SKY POLLS
UND was picked to finish fifth by the media and sixth by the coaches in
the 2012-13 Big Sky Conference preseason polls. After three seasons in
the Great West Conference following its move to NCAA Division I, UND
enters its first season in the league.
The top four spots were identical in both polls with Idaho State, the
defending Big Sky regular season and tournament champion, grabbing the
top position. Northern Colorado was the runner-up with Montana and
Montana State slotted third and fourth, respectively,
in both polls.
2012-13 SCHEDULE
This year’s slate includes 16 total home games (two exhibitions),10
games against postseason teams (NCAA- Idaho State (2), Iowa State;
WNIT- No. Colorado (2), Drake, Duquesne, Harvard, South Florida, Utah), a
re-kindling of the North Dakota State rivalry and
the inaugural season of the Big Sky Conference. UND will play each Big
Sky foe twice in home-and-home contests to make up 20 of North Dakota’s
games this season.
BIG SKY TV
Catch all home games and all conference road games live for FREE on the
internet, thanks to Big Sky TV. The free video webstream is available by
logging onto bigskyconf.com and clicking on the Big Sky TV button.
FOLLOW UND ON IHEART RADIO
Take North Dakota women’s basketball with you wherever you go with KSNR
100.3 FM (CatCountry) on the iheartradio app. Download it to your
computer or your smart phone.
CATCH THE LIVE ACTION
Select North Dakota women’s basketball games — home and away — can be
heard live on CatCountry 100.3 FM with Mitch Wigness handling the
play-by-play ... The radio broadcast can also be accessed via a live
audiocast on UNDSports.com (Check the website for schedule
changes and updates) ... Links for live stats, a live radio audiocast,
live chat, and streaming video can be found on the official site of
North Dakota athletics, UNDSports.com.
UND GONE MOBILE
The University of North Dakota athletics department and leading
technology service provider NeuLion, Inc. (TSX: NLN) have launched UND’s
official athletics mobile website, UNDSports.com. The new UND athletics
destination offers a mobile device-enabled version
of the site, amplifying the user experience on the go. The mobile
website will deliver a condensed version of the official athletics site
to provide latest news and quick updates to handheld devices. North
Dakota’s official athletics website is available on
all web-enabled devices by opening a browser and entering the
UNDSports.com URL. Users can get the latest news, scores, upcoming
schedule, photo galleries and more.
UND ON THE INTERNET
UNDSports.com is the official online home of University of North Dakota
athletics. UNDSports.com is a veritable one-stop shop for the most
hardcore fan, featuring breaking news, feature stories, game notes, live
and archived video webcasts, FREE audio, FREE
live stats, podcasts, blogs, player profiles, merchandise, photo
galleries, news feeds, camp registration and much, much more.
“DYER” STRAITS
UND got a boost over the semester break, announcing a big addition to
its roster. Makailah Dyer will be joining the squad after transferring
from the University of Wisconsin. Dyer is the cousin of current UND
men’s basketball player Troy Huff. She was a two-time
Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association all-state honoree as a prep.
She also earned 2011 Second Team All-State honors by the Associated
Press for Coach James Adams at Madison East High School, averaging 24.6
points per game as a senior, ranking second in
the state. She racked-up 1,517 points (18.7 ppg) in her prep career and
was a three-time all-area and all-conference selection.
