Beavers travel to face Bulldogs Feb. 12-13 to start four-game road trip
Bemidji State University women’s basketball travels to face the University of Minnesota Duluth Feb. 12-13 in the start of a four-game road trip to close out the 2020-21 regular season. The Beavers and Bulldogs open the weekend at 6 p.m. Friday and close at 4 p.m. Saturday at Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minn.
Minnesota Duluth leads the all-time series against Bemidji State, 75-30. UMD has won six straight games in the series while the last BSU win came Jan. 7, 2017, 60-57, in Bemidji, Minn. During last season’s two-game series, sophomore center Rachael Heittola averaged 20.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, including a 32-point, 13-rebound performance in BSU’s 91-80 triple-overtime loss.
Junior guard Trinity Myer scored 24 points with seven assists and six rebounds in the triple-overtime game.
The series began in 1969, a win by Bemidji State.
Bemidji State’s seven-game winning streak was snapped after falling in two games to St. Cloud State University on Feb. 5-6 at BSU Gymnasium. The Beavers first fell on Friday, 65-42, after trailing 29-13 at the end of the first quarter and closed the weekend with a 57-53 loss after going 10 minutes without scoring late in the game. BSU’s seven-game winning streak was the longest for the program since the Beavers won eight straight during the 1987-88 season. Bemidji State’s conference winning streak was also the longest since that 1987-88 season streak when BSU was a part of the Northern Sun Conference.
In Friday’s contest, the Beavers were held to their lowest field goal percentage of the season at 30.9 percent after not shooting lower than 41.3 percent through eight games entering the night. The Huskies in turn opened the game hot from the floor, shooting 60.0 percent from the field with four 3-pointers to take a 29-13 lead to exit the first quarter.
On Saturday night, BSU went on a 10-minute scoreless streak after holding an 11-point lead with 3:09 to play in the third quarter. BSU wasn’t able to put points on the board until 2:44 in the fourth quarter when it faced an eight-point deficit. The Huskies scored 18 unanswered points as the Beavers went 0-of-8 shooting from the field with nine turnovers given away during the stretch.
Senior guard Brooklyn Bachmann averaged 10.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. She scored 16 points in Saturday’s game, her first double-digit scoring game since Jan. 23 when scoring 24 points at the University of Mary.
Bachmann ranks 6th in the NSIC in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5), 7th in assists per game (3.7), 13th in rebounds per game (6.4) and 20th in points per game (13.2),
Senior guard Sydney Zerr averaged 9.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 steal per game, including a season-high 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc on Friday night.
Heittola ranks fourth in the NSIC in field goal percentage (.505), 10th in rebounds per game (6.8), 11th in blocks per game and 21st in points per game (13.0),
BSU ranks 11th in the NSIC with 66.5 points per game and fifth with 61.8 points allowed per game. The Beavers are second in the conference and 42nd in the nation in field goal percentage (43.6), sixth in the conference and 49th in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.373), third in the league and 46th nationally in 3-point field goal defense (.285), and fifth in the NSIC and 44th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.347).