THIS WEEKEND
The University of Mary Marauders men's basketball team heads east to Minnesota to start a 4-game road trip, first visiting the Huskies of St. Cloud State University before venturing over to meet the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23. The Marauders and Huskies tip off at 8 p.m. on Friday in Halenbeck Hall on the SCSU campus. The weekend concludes at UMD when the Marauders and Bulldogs battle for second in the NSIC North. Game time Saturday is 6 p.m. at Romano Gym.

RECORDS
U-Mary is 13-5 overall and 8-4 in the Northern Sun (4th overall, 3rd North)
St. Cloud State is 8-10 overall and 5-7 in the NSIC (9th overall, 5th North)
Minnesota Duluth is 13-5 overall and 9-3 in the NSIC (3rd overall, 2nd North)

LAST TIME OUT
U-Mary dropped a pair of home games, 64-54 to Winona State and 73-66 to Upper Iowa
St. Cloud State split a pair of road games, opening with a 102-63 loss at #2 Augustana before rebounding with a 108-74 win at Wayne State
Minnesota Duluth suffered a pair of road losses, 93-85 at Wayne State and 95-66 at #2 Augustana

HISTORY LESSON - MARAUDERS v. HUSKIES
U-Mary is 8-9 all-time against St. Cloud State
The Marauders are 5-2 at home, 3-5 at SCSU and 0-2 on neutral ground
U-Mary's first NCAA win came at SCSU 86-77 on 11.18.06
U-Mary's first signature NCAA win was a 77-48 home victory over #8 SCSU on 12.16.07
The two teams have split the last two years; last season the visiting team won both games.
Last Meeting In the final regular season game of the 2014-15 season, the University of Mary rode a big second half to an 87-82 upset win over St. Cloud State. The Huskies were ranked ninth in the NCAA regional poll entering the game. Down 64-54 with 12 minutes remaining, the Marauders went on a 30-12 run and led by eight points with 35 seconds left in the game. The UM bench - led by 16 points from Jaycob Velasco, 14 from Damonta Henry and 10 from Luke Scott - outscored the SCSU reserves 40-13. Germain Decoste added 14 points, Marquealis Edwards had 13 points and six assists, and Chris Mason added 10 points. Jordan Poydras had 27 for SCSU and Connor Niehaus 14.
HISTORY LESSON - MARAUDERS v. BULLDOGS
U-Mary trails Minnesota Duluth 5-8 in the all-time series
The Marauders first victory over the Bulldogs was an 80-77 overtime win on 1.16.09.
The two teams split a pair of games last year with the home team winning each meeting
Last Meeting After trailing for 32 minutes straight minutes, the Bulldogs moved past the Marauders with 4:06 remaining in a 63-60 Minnesota Duluth win. U-Mary led by as many as 11 points in the game. Germain Decoste led the Marauders with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Jaycob Velasco added 10 points and Chris Mason and Marquealis Edwards both had eight for U-Mary. Bret Ervin led UMD with 24 points and Pierre Newton added 11 points and 12 rebounds.

LAST WEEK REWIND
For the first time this season the Marauders suffered a weekend sweep, losing at home 64-54 against Winona State and 73-66 to Upper Iowa. Suffering through their worst shooting night of the season, the Marauders missed 14 of their first 17 field goal attempts against the Warriors and the night didn't get better from there. The Marauders shot just 28.8 percent from the floor. U-Mary surged in the second half to climb within 39-37 but Winona  State went on a 13-2 run to regain control of the game. Damonta Henry and Bryan Jefferson led the Marauders with 13 points each. Marquealis Edwards added 11 and Isaac Lindquist added 13 rebounds. Mark Bauman led the Warriors with 18 points... Leading by as many as 16 points in the second half, U-Mary missed its last 13 field goal attempts of the game in a stunning 73-66 loss to Upper Iowa. Seemingly in control if the game, the Marauders scored its final basket with 8:42 left in the game and scored just two points - on free throws - in the final 8:08. Meanwhile the Peacocks went on a 19-0 run to take the game. Bryan Jefferson scored 17 points for U-Mary. Devan Douglas added 12 and Isaac Lindquist 11. Jimmy Roth scored a game-high 24 points for UIU.

STABLE STANDINGS
Despite getting swept, the Marauders remained in the same spot in the Northern Sun standings, 3rd in the NSIC North Division and 4th overall in the league. U-Mary is 8-4 in conference play. While the standings didn't change, the Marauders did fall two games farther behind Augustana (12-0) and MSU Moorhead (11-1), the top two teams. The third place squad, Minnesota Duluth (9-3), also was swept last weekend, keeping the Bulldogs within a game of the Marauders.

BIG MEETING
Depending on how Friday's games goes when U-Mary plays at St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth hosts Minot State, second place in the NSIC North and third place in the Northern Sun could be on the line. The Marauders enter the weekend a single game back of the Bulldogs in the standings.

SECOND HALF STARTS
The Peacocks game started the second half of the NSIC schedule for U-Mary. The Marauders have ten conference games remaining before NSIC tournament play.

AGAINST TYPE
Entering last weekend the Marauders were one of the highest scoring teams in the conference, the best shooting team, and among the top rebounding teams. Unfortunately those three Marauders strengths were neutralized in a pair of home losses to Winona State and Upper Iowa. For the first time all season U-Mary was held under 70 points in back-to-back games while also finishing on the minus side of the rebounding ledger. U-Mary is 2-4 this season when the opponents have the rebounding edge and 3-3 when scoring 70 or fewer points.

DEFENSE DOESN'T REST
One of the top defensive units in the Northern Sun, the Marauders rank third in field goal defense and 8th in three-point field goal percentage defense. Opponents are shooting just 42.6 percent against the Marauders overall and 36.3 percent on trey attempts. Last weekend WSU and UIU were a combined 12-of-48 (.250) on 3-point attempts.

BOARD GAMES
The Marauders have been tremendous on the boards this season. U-Mary is second in the NSIC in rebounding margin at +6.0 rebounds/game. Additionally the Marauders are most adept at halting second chance point opportunities. U-Mary is hauling down 75 percent of the defensive rebounds available in each game, the top figure in the NSIC.

MARAUDERS 10th IN D2SIDA ALL-CENTRAL REGION POLL
After suffering two losses last weekend the University of Mary slipped six slots to tenth in this week's NCAA Division II Media Poll, presented by D2SIDA. The top three spots in the regional poll are held by teams from the Northern Sun. Augustana received all six first place votes and had 60 points. MSU Moorhead is second with 54 votes, followed by the University of Minnesota Duluth (38), Northwest Missouri (36), Lindenwood (34), East Central (26), Fort Hays State (23), Missouri Southern (16), Minnesota State (16) and U-Mary (11).

90
Six times the Marauders have scored 90 or more points in a game. That equals the U-Mary total from the previous NINE YEARS COMBINED! In only two other seasons during the NCAA era has U-Mary reached at least 90 points in a game twice (2009-10 and 2010-11).

80
In 18 games this season U-Mary has scored at least 80 points seven different times. Out of the school's ten NCAA era seasons (beginning with 2006-07), only in 2009-10 have the Marauders scored at least 80 points seven times.

BEST START
It took only 16 games for the Marauders to win 13 games this season, the program's best start of U-Mary's NCAA era, which began with the 2006-07 season.

BEST START II
It took the Marauders 16 games this season to reach 13 wins. In the last decade the fewest games it took to reach 13 wins was 17 games in 2010-11.

BEST START III - NSIC EDITION
With eight wins in ten games, this is the Marauders best start in Northern Sun play. It took U-Mary 12 games to win eight in 2010-11.

BAKER'S DOZEN
With 13 wins this season the Marauders have already exceeded last year's win total of nine. The last time U-Mary had more than 12 wins was 2010-11 when the Marauders finished with 23.

13
The 13 wins this season is already the third best total for U-Mary in ten seasons of NCAA competition. The Marauders won 23 games in 2010-11 and 15 in 2009-10, the only other two double-digit win seasons.


JEFFERSON STEPS FORWARD
Junior forward Bryan Jefferson continues to develop into one of the top players in the Northern Sun. Including both games last weekend, the Aurora, Ill., native has led the Marauders in scoring eight times this season and rebounding six times. He has posted double digit point totals in 15 of 18 contests. Averaging 14.9 points per game, he is 13th in the NSIC in scoring. Additionally Jefferson is 10th in rebounding (6.6/game) and seventh in field goal shooting (.577). He is second on the squad in assists (2.1/game) and third in steals (15).

CLUTCH
Marquealis Edwards has shined in the closing minutes of close games this season for U-Mary. Twice he has scored the winning points in the closing seconds and twice he has key free throws to cement wins. His latest starring role came in the 77-73 win over #3 MSU Moorhead. The senior guard scored the last four points of the game, hitting the winning layup with 15 seconds remaining and adding two free throws with 1.2 seconds left. The Minneapolis, Minn., native the winning layup with three seconds left in a 77-76 win over Southern Arkansas. In a 60-58 win over Northern State Edwards scored the last two U-Mary points with two seconds left. He also hit two free throws in the closing seconds of a 69-65 win at USF.

STAT STUFFER
It's no surprise that Marquealis Edwards would post the Marauders first triple double of the NCAA era when he recorded 10 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a win over Presentation. The senior guard from Minneapolis, Minn., ranks among Northern Sun leaders in five categories: 2nd in steals (1.9/game), 11th in rebounds (6.3/game), 7th in assists (3.6/game), 19th in scoring (13.8/game) and 4th in free throw percentage (.857).

DEPTH
Ten Marauders have played in at least 15 of 18 games this season. All ten are averaging at least 11 minutes per game.

MAKING SHOTS
U-Mary is connecting on 48.5 percent of its field goal attempts, ranking 40th in NCAA Division II and third in the Northern Sun.

SHARING THE LOAD
Eight different Marauders are averaging at least 5.3 points per game this season.

POINTS POINTS POINTS
U-Mary is averaging 81.3 points per game, 6th in the NSIC.