Women’s Basketball Starts Off Pre-Season With A Win

UMD Women's Basketball faces the College of St. Scholastica in a pre-season exhibition game. Photo by. Kieley Jacobson

The UMD women’s basketball team started pre-season with an exhibition game against the College of Saint Scholastica(CSS) on Wednesday, October 29th, at 6:30 pm in the Romano Gym. The Bulldogs came out victorious against the Saints with a final score of 86-82.

The game started quickly with CSS scoring 2 points in the first few seconds of the first quarter. The Bulldogs did not let that stop them, however, with them quickly taking the lead, scoring 6 points in the next two minutes to create a score of 6-4. They ended the quarter hot, pulling a 9-point lead against the Saints with a score of 23-14.

The second quarter started with the Saints' attempt at tying the game, scoring 7 consecutive points, bringing the score to 23-21. They couldn’t quite catch up as they ended the first half 46-33, with the Bulldogs keeping their lead. 

Center Gabrielle Kirchner scores a layup to secure a Bulldog win. Photo by. Kieley Jacobson

The Bulldogs' advantage at the beginning of the second half did not trigger CSS to give up, as they put up a 9-point run with about 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Still, the Bulldogs prevailed, putting up 10 points in the remainder of the quarter to bring the score to 65-48. 

In the fourth quarter of the game, the Bulldogs stayed hot, scoring 12 points within the first half of the quarter compared to CSS’s 4. The end of the quarter was relatively quiet for UMD, with the Saints pulling a 7-0 run. With under a minute to go in the game, the Bulldogs encountered two consecutive fast breaks, scoring the final 4 points of the game and an 86-62 Bulldog win.

The women's basketball team has another exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin Superior on November 3rd at 5:30 pm, along with a game against Bethel University on November 8th at 3 pm, both hosted in the Romano Gym to close out their pre-season.