DULUTH, Minn. – What a difference a night made.
 
Minot State University rebounded from a tough loss – and the loss of senior Morgan Klose (G, Fairview, N.D.) – Friday night with a 77-56 win over Minnesota Duluth in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women's basketball Saturday at Romano Gymnasium.
 
The Beavers (12-16 overall, 7-15) closed out the regular season with their most complete game of the season, hitting 53.4 percent of their shots, while holding UMD (12-14, 10-12) to just 31.3 percent shooting. MSU will finish as the No. 7 seed in the NSIC North Division and will travel to No. 2 Minnesota State University for the first round of the conference tournament Wednesday.
 
"We came to play tonight," said MSU head coach Sheila Green Gerding. "We forced them into quick shots and they missed them. Overall we did a good job of taking care of the boards, especially in the first half."
 
Klose went down with an injury midway through the second half in Friday's game at St. Cloud State, limiting the Beavers guard rotation Saturday. But MSU's backcourt tandem of Amanda Sansaver (Jr., Wolf Point, Mont.) and Alex Haley (So., Libertyville, Ill.) responded. Haley led all scorers with 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting, while Sansaver was brilliant at the point with 12 points, nine assists and three rebounds.
 
"I told her (Sansaver) before the game, don't ask for a sub because you aren't going to get one," Green Gerding said. "Amanda fought their pressure the whole way and they picked her up right away, but she handled that really, really well. She was there when we needed her.
 
"And then Alex went to work. She struggled a little with turnovers early, but I think that made her a little mad and she was good in the second half."
 
MSU took the lead at 10-9 on a layup by Christina Boag (Sr., F, Tamworth, Australia) off a feed by Sansaver six minutes into the game. The lead ballooned to 21-16 on a 3-pointer by Diondra Denton (So., G, Great Falls, Mont.) six minutes later and reached 13 on a Sansaver layup at 6:13.
 
Haley did the bulk of her damage in the second half as she scored 14 of her 20 after the break. In the first half, the Beavers balance was great as four players including Boag, Sansaver, Savana Kingsbury (Jr., F, Omaha, Neb.) and Sarah Lester (Jr., G, Frenchtown, Mont.) all had seven. The Beavers led 40-26 at half behind 53 percent shooting to start the game.
 
"Chris bounced back after missing some early, but she was really good in the second half and really good on the boards," Green Gerding said. "We got contributions all over the place, it was on down the line. I don't know what more you can ask for. This was a great way to end the regular season."
 
Jessica Newman was the only Bulldog to reach double figures as she scored 20 points, but needed 20 shots to do so. The Beavers locked down on Danielle Flood, who scored 20 at the MSU Dome a month ago, allowing her just nine points on 2 of 10 shooting and UMD was without leading scorer Taylor Meyer.
 
Along with Sansaver and Haley, Boag and Lester reached double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively. Boag finished with nine rebounds and four steals, while Kingsbury pulled down seven rebounds to go along with nine points and three assists. MSU had a big 47-36 rebound advantage, including a 34-19 edge in defensive boards.
 
Minot State heads into the NSIC tournament having won three of their last four games.