UMD women’s basketball advance to NCAA Final Four for first time in program history

The No.2 University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) women’s basketball team advanced to the DII NCAA Final Four for the first time in program history on Monday beating No. 7 Assumption 61-41.

“We did a really good job of slowing down and finding the open person. You know, they have a really good help side and I thought the ball moved. We saw they took a couple of charges on us but I was really proud of our patients and poise on the offensive side of things,” said head coach Mandy Pearson.

Brooke Olson lead the way again on the offensive side of the court, leading the Bulldogs with 15 points.

Defensively the game was low scoring thanks to the rebound work of Maesyn Thiesen. She snagged down seven rebounds at the end of the game.

“We just trust that we can get stops on defense and that’s what it came down to in the close game. Then that’s also what helped us extend the lead in this game. So we know that our offense is going to flow and we’re going to have that. But we also really trust our defense and know that when crunch time comes, we’re going to be able to get a stop on that edge,” added Thiesen.

UMD now moves on to play No. 6 Catawba on Wednesday, tip-off time is still to be determined.

For the full DII bracket CLICK HERE.