Feb. 12, 2000

Northern State defended home court in a matchup of two of the best teams in the nation Saturday night in the Barnett Center, defeating Minnesota-Duluth 74-71.

NSU, ranked 19th in the nation and third in the North Central Region, shot only 39 percent for the game but held UMD (ranked 22nd nationally and fifth in the North Central Region) to 37 percent from the field.

NSU senior guard Jammie Coyle (Belle Fourche) was not cold from the field, scoring a career second-best 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Rounding out NSU's double-digit scorers were junior forward Memory Johannsen (Tolstoy) and senior guard Amanda Mikuska (Platte), who scored 15 and 11, respectively. Sophomore post Shanna Dahl (St. Cloud, Minn.) led NSU on the boards with eight rebounds. UMD was led by Mary Barker's 22 points.

After going into the locker room with a 37-36 halftime lead, NSU would never trail in the second half. But the Bulldogs never went away and pulled pulled to within two points in the final minute of the game. Coyle scored four of NSU's last five points --including two clutch free throws -- in the final minute to help seal the game. Johannsen scored the last point of the game on a free throw and purposely missed her last shot from the charity stripe with two seconds remaining to force a Duluth team with no timeouts to attempt a full-court shot for the tie.

NSU improved to 22-4 overall and 12-3 in the NSIC, while Duluth fell to 18-4 and 13-1. NSU's win halted a 12-game UMD winning streak that dated back to Dec. 30.