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THIS WEEK: Minot State University is back on the road to start 2013, playing at Minnesota Duluth Friday (6 p.m.) and at St. Cloud State Saturday (4 p.m.)

RECORDS: MISU is 6-3 overall, 2-3 in the NSIC. UMD is 6-3 overall and is 3-2 in the NSIC, while SCSU is 8-1 overall and tied for second with a 4-1 mark in the NSIC.

COACHES CORNER: Sheila Green Gerding begins her 18th season as the Minot State head coach and sports a lofty 307-201 record. Duluth's head coach is Annette Wiles, who is 75-48 in five seasons at UMD and 375-189 overall in 20 seasons. Lori Fish is the head coach at St. Cloud State and is 78-67 in five seasons with the Huskies. She is 140-120 overall in her career.

FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: The game is broadcast locally on KCJB 910-AM with Scott Kittell calling the play-by-play. Live audio can be accessed online at kcjb.com. MSU provides live video and live stats as well as links to the live audio at msubeavers.com. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube with all feeds accessible at msubeavers.com/stayconnected.

RANKINGS: Minot State, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State were not ranked in the latest USA Today/ESPN.

RECENT HISTORY: Minot State defeated Brandon (Manitoba) University 92-42 in the Beavers final nonconference game of the season Dec. 30 at the MSU Dome. Minnesota Duluth snapped a three-game winning streak with a 72-42 loss at Northern State Dec. 15 in its first game before the holiday break. St. Cloud State shook off its only loss of the season on Dec. 14 (62-15 at Northern State) with a 79-56 win over MSU Moorhead Dec. 15.

OVERALL SERIES: Minot State is meeting both teams for the first time as a member of NCAA Division II and the NSIC.

NOTING THE BULLDOGS: Minnesota Duluth had a three-game winning streak come to an abrupt end in its final game of the 2012-13 season as they fell 72-42 at a hot Northern State… Duluth has a perfect 4-0 record at home this season, including two wins over Northern Sun teams Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston… Hannah Rutten, Katrina Newman and Alyssa Kerkhoff are the only three players to lead the Bulldogs in scoring this season… Newman's 25 points against St. Mary's is the team's top outburst this season… Rutten is the team's leading scorer at 15.2 points per game and the team's leading rebounder at 9.1 rebounds per game. She also has 15 steals, 11 assists and seven blocked shots… Through nine games, UMD has hit just one more field goal than its opponents, but are outscoring its opponents by 24 points.

NOTING THE HUSKIES: St. Cloud State is averaging 16.6 assists per game, well over half of its 25.4 made baskets per game and more than its 15.2 turnovers per contest. The Huskies have an impressive 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio… SCSU has six players averaging more than 5.3 points per game for solid balance and its top two scorers, Jessica Benson and Sam Price, are separated by just three points as Benson is averaging 15.8 ppg., and Price, 15.4… Nicole Anderson's 4.33 assists per game sits her in fifth in the NSIC overall and she is the second best player in assist-to-turnover average with a 2.79… Price is the league's leading free throw shooter, knocking down 30 of 32 attempts for a 93.8 percent average. She is one of only two NSIC players to hit 90 percent or better.

DOWN-UNDER DOMINANCE: Minot State junior Carly Boag (F, Tamworth, Australia) has already made a mark on the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and NCAA Division II. Boag ranks in the top 10 in the NSIC in four categories and is in the top 20 nationally in one. She is second overall in the NSIC in field goal percentage at 58.3. That rate puts her 16th in all of DII. She is also fifth in the NSIC in rebounding (9.0), sixth in scoring (16.7) and eighth in steals (22). She is ranked 69th in the country in scoring average.

STREAKING ALLOWED: Minot State hasn't won or lost a single game this season, instead, the Beavers have put together either a winning streak or a losing streak throughout the season. Minot opened with four straight wins on the season, including two nonconference and two Northern Sun wins. The Beavers dropped three straight NSIC games only to rebound with two straight nonconference wins to get to 6-3.

EMERGING DEPTH: While the Beavers have two players accounting for 31 of their 68 point average per game, the “role players” have come on strong lately. Minot State has six other players averaging 4.2 points per game and during the past four games, three other MISU players have scored in double figures at least once. Francesca DeAngelis (Sr., G, Laguna Niguel, Calif.) leads the way with a 9.75 per game scoring average in the past four games, hitting double figures twice. Morgan Klose (So., G, Fairview, N.D.) also has hit double figures twice in that span and is averaging 7.25 per game. Lauren Safranski (Sr., G, Bursville, Minn.) has hit double figures once in her past four games, but still is averaging 7.25 per game in that stretch.

NONCONFERENCE, NONISSUE: The Beavers finished the nonconference portion of their 2012-13 season with a pair of home wins, pulling away from Midland (Neb.) University 77-64 and blowing out Brandon (Manitoba) University 92-42 at the MSU Dome. Over the past three season – not counting 2011-12 where all games were officially nonconference as MISU transitioned to NCAA Division II and was an independent – the Beavers are 18-3 against nonconference opponents. In 2010-11, MISU went 12-3 overall, while going 12-2 in 2009-2010. Minot State's last nonconference loss at the MSU Dome was an 85-76 setback to Rocky Mountain (Mont.) College Dec. 1, 2008.

HIGH PERCENTAGE: Minot State senior guard Sacarra Molina (Hinsdale, Mont.) has been steady throughout the first nine games of her final season. Molina, the Beavers second leading scorer at 14.4 points per game, is hitting at least 50 percent in all three major shooting categories. She is 43-83 overall from the floor, for a 51.8 percent clip. She is 13-23 on 3-pointers, knocking down 56.5 percent and has missed just six free throws all season, going 31 of 37 overall (83.8). She was tied for 119th overall in Division II with an 81.5 percent rate on free throws at the latest rankings done on Dec. 15. Her 56.5 percent on 3-pointers is tops in the NSIC and would be good for third in the nation, but she doesn't have the NCAA required 2.0 makes per game, hitting 13 in nine games.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE: Minot State is middle of the road in both scoring offense and scoring in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference – the exact middle in both. The Beavers are the eighth ranked scoring offense with a 68.0 average and are No. 8 on defense, giving up 62.6 per game. The Beavers overall are ranked in the middle of the conference as MISU is not ranked lower than 11th in any one category in the NSIC and is as high as sixth (field goal defense).