UMC Finishes Strong In Win at Bemidji State

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle women’s basketball team improved upon their best start in over a decade with a 70-61 win over the Bemidji State Beavers in the NSIC opener played at the Bemidji State Gymnasium.
Following a Bemidji State jump shot to open the scoring, Minnesota Crookston scored seven straight points to take a 7-2 lead with 6:19 left in the first quarter. Following a Beavers’ three-pointer, Isieoma Odor (Sr., Bloomington) made a jumper to push the Golden Eagles lead to 9-5 with 4:53 left in the opening quarter. Towards the end of the opening quarter, the Beavers scored six straight points on a pair of lay-ups made through fouls giving the Beavers a 14-11 lead. Abby Guidinger (Soph., Waukesha, WI) knocked down a three-pointer with 0:11 left in the quarter to give UMC a 17-16 lead after 10 minutes of play. “We stayed in there long enough to give our offense a chance,” explained Minnesota Crookston head coach Mike Roysland. “We left so many baskets at the rim and stuff like that gets back-breaking. Our guards had opportunity after opportunity and we had good looks at a couple of threes, it just seems like we were fighting ourselves.”
A 6-0 run early in the second quarter gave Bemidji State a 25-19 lead before Isieoma Odor scored four-straight points cutting the Golden Eagles’ deficit down to 25-23. Caitlin Michaelis (Sr., Marshfield, WI) gave UMC a 26-25 lead with 4:18 to play in the second quarter after making a three-pointer. Bren Fox (Fr., Norwood Young America) made a free throw with 3:04 left in the half tying the game at 27-27. As the low scoring quarter continued, Stephanie McWilliams (Jr., Grand Forks, ND) made a jump shot with 1:49 for the final points of the half securing a 29-27 halftime lead for Minnesota Crookston. “The kids held resistant and our defense stayed in their tough enough, long enough and our offense did just enough to keep up,” said Roysland. “I was happy when we went in at halftime because they had a nice run in the second quarter and for us to go in up two I knew we could play better than this I felt fortunate that we weren’t down 10.”
In the third quarter, the Golden Eagles took a 33-29 lead after a Caitlin Michaelis jump shot with 8:02 left in the quarter. Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston battled back and forth the rest of the third period before a Beavers’ lay-up with 0:29 left to play in the quarter tied the game at 43-43 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.  
In the fourth quarter, an Abby Guidinger three-pointer pushed the Golden Eagles ahead 46-45. With 7:08 to play, a three-point play scored by BSU’s Taylor Bray (Soph., Anoka) cut the Beavers’ deficit to 49-48. UMC answered with back-to-back three-pointers from Michaelis and McWilliams to take a 55-48 lead with 4:50 remaining. “We had one little spurt,” explained Roysland. “Out of that timeout we hit a couple threes, so we went from up one going into that timeout and got it to five and then five went to ten.” UMC continued to pull away the rest of the half with Michaelis scoring five-straight point pushing the Golden Eagles’ lead to 63-50 with 3:03 remaining. The Golden Eagles continued to keep its distance the rest of the game closing out a 70-61 win. “You’ve got to feel good about it,” said Roysland after the win. “Anytime you get a win on the road in this conference you better not be complaining. There’s a lot to learn from this. It wasn’t picture perfect, but hopefully, this will give our team a little confidence going into next week. “
UMC improves to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Golden Eagles return to their home floor at Lysaker Gymnasium on Friday when UMC hosts MSU-Moorhead at 5:30 p.m. Bemidji State falls to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the NSIC.