[BasketballAlum] "one more win"

[gary holquist]

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

Teams that improve and win in February, have an opportunity to have an 
extended season in March.  We defeated the University of North Dakota 
in Grand Forks last Saturday, in front of a crowd of three thousand 
fans, which allows us to be undefeated in February thus far.  The 'Dogs 
had a lead of 15 going into the last seven minutes of play.  UND made a 
strong push cutting the lead to one with less than a minute to play. 
Key defensive stops at the end and "Spud" Schade (5-8, 160 lbs, Fr. 
Oshkosh North High School-WI) making free throws with 15 seconds left 
sealed a 73-68 victory.  We won how a team is supposed to win on the 
road-not through ability but through toughness.  We took care of the 
ball, out rebounded our opponent, made consecutive defensive stops 
multiple times, got a lead and extended it by getting great shots 
deeper into the shot clock (11 of 18 in the second half, shooting 61 
%), and made free throws.  Our bench performance was excellent.  We 
outscored UND's bench 28 to 6, lead by Matt Hockett (6-5, 225 lbs. Sr. 
McFarland-WI) 15 point-7 rebound performance.  Starters, Bryan Foss 
(6-7, 210 lbs. Sr. Osseo High School-MN) had 18 points-7 rebounds, 
while Jordan Nuness (6-3, 210 lbs. Jr. Eden Prairie-MN) picked up two 
quick first half fouls and played less than two minutes, but had 13 
points in the second half.  Steve Duncan (6-5, 215 lbs. Fr Hopkins High 
School-MN) gave us quality minutes at the off guard spot in place of 
Nuness.  Once again, Ryan Meissner (6-6, 190 lbs. Jr. Osseo High 
School-MN) had a tough defensive assignment and shut down a 20 point a 
game scorer holding him to 10 points.  John Vaudreuil (6-8, 260 lbs. 
Jr. Bloomington-MN) only scored six points, but he was doubled down on 
every time he touched it in the scoring area and created a number of 
great catch and shoot scores for his team mates on passes out of the 
post.  Any time you can win a road game in the North Central Conference 
is good, but when you can win in the fashion we did it is an excellent 
indicator of a team improving.

We will need to have that improvement intact this Saturday.  We play 
our final NCC road contest of the season at the University of South 
Dakota.  USD is currently leading the league, having only one loss, 
with three games remaining.  They are ranked nationally and have a 
distinct home court advantage.  They play in the DakotaDome where the 
basketball floor is placed in the middle of a domed football stadium. 
Shooting backgrounds are unique and fan attendance will be over five 
thousand people, which creates an interesting environment to play in.

After this weekend, we return to Romano Gymnasium for two games next 
week.  We have battled and put ourselves in a position that if we can 
win two of our last three games we will secure a home court seed for 
the conference tournament.  This has been a goal of ours all season 
long.  More importantly our play continues to improve as we move toward 
March Madness.  All we want is a chance!  We need to keep giving 
ourselves opportunity.  All of you would love this team-they are a 
group of relentless grinders, which never give up.

Go Bulldogs!


Gary W. Holquist
University of Minnesota Duluth
Head Men's Basketball Coach
218-726-6185