THIS WEEK: Minot State plays its last NSIC North-South Division games of the regular season as the Beavers play host to Concordia-St. Paul Friday (6 p.m.) and Minnesota State Saturday (4 p.m.) at the Minot State Dome.

RECORDS: MSU is 8-14 overall and is 5-11 in Northern Sun play, sitting in a tie with Minnesota Duluth and U-Mary for fifth in the NSIC North Division. CSP stands at 10-12 and 6-10 in NSIC South play, good for fifth, while Minnesota State comes into the weekend at 6-14 and 5-11, sixth in the South.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State is coached by Sheila Green Gerding. In her 21st season at the helm of the Beaver women's basketball program, Green Gerding has amassed an impressive 354-253 overall record. Green Gerding is the Beavers all-time wins leader and has all 354 wins at MSU. She has qualified Minot State for six NAIA National Tournaments over her career while also coaching 12 All-Americans both at the NAIA and NCAA Division II levels. Amanda Behnke was promoted to Interim Head Coach during the winter break and has served in that role since. She is 5-6 since taking over. Behnke is in her fourth season with the Golden Bears as a coach after a stellar playing career at CSP. Minnesota State's Emilee Thiesse is in her fourth season with the Mavericks. She has been highly successful so far with three 20 win seasons and a 76-36 record. She has guided the Mavericks to three NCAA Division II tournaments.

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 – with Leif Bakken serving as the play-by-play announcer – and live stats as well as links to the live audio at msubeavers.com. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube with all feeds accessible at msubeavers.com/stayconnected.

RANKINGS: None of the three team involved were ranked in the latest WBCA Division II Top 25 poll or the D2SIDA Central Region Poll.

RECENT HISTORY: Minot State couldn't put together complete games on the road last week, falling 80-60 at Wayne State College and 87-70 at Augustana University. MSU was paced by Savana Kingsbury (Sr., F, Omaha, Neb.) both nights as she scored 17 points and pulled down six rebounds at Wayne State and followed that up with 21 points and eight rebounds Sunday at Augie. Sarah Lester (Sr., F, Frenchtown, Mont.) scored 17 points and added 12 rebounds and seven assists in Sunday's loss. CSP split games at home last week, falling to MSU Moorhead 77-59 Friday as Caitlyn Russell scored 14 points. Mishayla Jones' 23 points Saturday night were enough in a hard-fought 83-79 win over Northern State. Russell had 10 rebounds in Saturday's win. Minnesota State dropped its games with NSU and MSU Moorhead Friday and Saturday losing 74-61 to the Wolves and 65-50 to Moorhead. Sammie Delzotto scored 14 in Friday's loss, while Claire Jordan hit for 10 Saturday

ALL-TIME AT A GLANCE: The Beavers have yet to defeat either of the two teams coming to the Dome this weekend, sitting at 0-3 overall against both. Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State have knocked the Beavers out of the NSIC playoffs in each of the past two seasons as well with the Golden Bears topping MSU in the second round of the tournament in 2013-14 and Minnesota State last year.

LAST TIME OUT: Minot State was defeated in three games against this weekend's opponents, dropping both regular season matchups on the road and returning to Minnesota State for an 87-73 loss in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament. Katie Hardy and Alex Haley (Jr., G, Libertyville, Ill.) scored 10 apiece in MSU's 80-45 loss at CSP as Caitlyn Russel scored 16 to pace the Golden Bears. MSU led Minnesota State by a point at half of their NSIC Tournament game, but the Mavericks pulled away in the second half. Sarah Lester (Sr., F, Frenchtown, Mont.) scored 16 for the Beavers, while Lexie Ulfers dropped 19 for Minnesota State.

NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia-St. Paul is 5-6 since Amanda Behnke was named Interim Head Coach at the winter break, but are 5-2 in its last seven… The Golden Bears have used eight different players in a starting role and have four players averaging double figures in scoring… Anna Schmitt leads the team with a 15.3 scoring average, hitting 48.1 percent of her field goals… Kyrah Fredenburg is tops in the conference with a 10.8 rebounding average and has scored 144 points on the season… CSP has been the free throw line 450 times and has shot well overall, hitting 69.6 percent. But its opponents have shot 490 free throws and are hitting at a 72.2 percent clip to give CSP a 41 point deficit at the line… With two field goals made, Caitlyn Russell would join Mishayla Jones, Lauren Shifflett and Schmitt with 100 field goals on the season… Jones leads the team with 88 assists and is third overall in scoring with a 12.3 average.

NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State has struggled to  get wins this season after hitting 20 wins in each of the past three years… The Mavericks have hit 90 points or better three times this season, but have been held in the 50s six times… Claire Ziegler and Britney Scherber had done the bulk of the scoring for MSU, coming into the weekend with a 13.7 and 13.5 scoring averages respectively… Ziegler has hit 53.6 percent of her shots, making 111 of 207 from the field and is the team's leading rebounder at 8.5 per game… The Mavericks have been hurt by turnovers as they have 358 on the season compared to just 247 assists… Scherber lead the team with 33 made 3s and paces the Mavericks with 46 assists… McKenzie Hoelmenn has been steady this season averaging 8.0 points and 6.9 rebounds.

NSIC CIVIL WAR: Going into the final week of North-South Division matchups, the two divisions are even at 24-24 in head-to-head matchups. Overall, NSIC South Division teams sport a 94-80 record, while the North Division has a combined record of 88-77. Minot State has struggled with South Division teams this season going just 1-5 overall, but are 1-1 with South teams at the MSU Dome. Concordia-St. Paul is 3-3 against the North, while Minnesota State is 2-4. The next time North vs. South games are played will be in the NSIC Tournament first round.

500-500 CLUB: Minot State senior Savana Kingsbury (F, Omaha, Neb.) continues her march to 500 points and 500 rebounds in her career as she is now just 14 rebounds shy of the mark. She has destroyed her previous high points mark as she has nearly doubled her scoring average from last season to a robust 12.3 and needs just nine rebounds to move past last season's totals in caroms. Kingsbury has been excellent as of late as she has reached double figures in rebounds in three of her last seven games and double figure points in five of seven. She averaged 15.25 points and 7.0 rebounds and 3.15 assists during MSU's four-game road swing the past two weeks.

ROAD STRONG    

Opponent	Pts.	Rebs.	Assists	Steals
At Minnesota Duluth	15	2	2	4
At St. Cloud State	8	12	3	1
At Wayne State College	17	6	3	3
At Augustana University	21	8	5	0

      
FLIRTING WITH TRIPLES: Minot State forwards Sarah Lester (Sr., Frenchtown, Mont.) and Savana Kingsbury (Sr., Omaha, Neb.) both had games last week where their numbers flirted with the ever-difficult triple-double. Lester came as close as anyone has in Beaver uniform in quite a few years as she finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in the loss at Augustana University. Just behind her was Kingsbury's 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Kingsbury leads the Beavers with three double-doubles, while Lester is right behind with two.

FRESHMEN PHENOMES: Minot State's freshmen duo of Madison Wald (G, Minot, N.D.) and Kari Clements (G, Trevor, Wis.) have proven the future is bright in the Beavers' backcourt. Clements has moved into the sixth man role, usually the first MSU player off the bench and has flourished with a 9.0 scoring average, good for fourth on the team. She is leading the team with 41 steals and has hit a team-leading 23 3-pointers. Wald has been very good as of late, pushing her scoring average to 4.6 on the season and has 23 steals and 10 3-pointers. She is also leading the team at the free throw line with a stellar 14 for 15 mark.

BY THE NUMBERS

13: Shot blocks by Sarah Lester (Sr., F, Frenchtown, Mont.). She is the only MSU player in double figures in blocks on the season.

55: Assists for senior Amanda Sansaver (G, Wolf Point, Mont.) to lead the team. She has just 37 turnovers compared to the 55 helpers overall. She just moved past 200 for her career.

190-542: Three-point shooting for MSU opponents. Teams have hit nearly 100 more triples than the Beavers (190-196) and have cast up 542 3s on the season for a 35.1 percent rate.