NORTH DAKOTA (3-1) at GEORGIA SOUTHERN (0-2)
DATE:  Wednesday, Nov. 20  |  10 a.m. CT
SITE:  Grand Forks, N.D. (Betty Engelstad Sioux Center)
RADIO:  100.3 FM, 740 AM (Jack Michaels)
TV/VIDEO:  ESPN+
LIVE STATS:  FightingHawks.com
TWITTER: @UNDWBasketball

QUICK JUMPERS
*North Dakota is 3-1 to start the season for the first time since 2014-15 when the Hawks opened the year 7-1 and culminated the season with a WBI berth.
*Melissa Leet is The Summit League's top-scorer from the bench, averaging 9.0 points per game. The sixth woman off the bench is also averaging 8.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per outing, ranking her in the top-10 in the country.
*Jaclyn Jarnot recorded her first career double-double against Valparaiso with 16 points and 11 boards. She averaged a double-double as well with 11 points and 10 rebounds in two games last week.
*All three of the University of North Dakota's wins have been by five points or less, including two-point wins against Grand Canyon (away) and Valparaiso (home).
*The Fighting Hawks finished -4 in rebounding margin against Rhode Island, their first win despite grabbing fewer boards since Feb. 18, 2017, against Weber State at The Betty (83-67).
*Through four games, UND has taken 96 three-point attempts, averaging 6.8 makes per game.
*In Warren Nolan's strength of schedule rankings, North Dakota owns the 14th most robust schedule in the country while it sits No. 9 in its RPI rankings as well.

ON TAP
Finishing last weekend with a pair of wins at The Betty Engelstad Sioux Center over Rhode Island and Valparaiso, North Dakota women's basketball will return to the road this week when it takes on Georgia Southern on Wednesday, Nov 20 at 10 a.m. The Eagles will host its Kid's Day game against the Hawks.

FIRST BLOOD: EAGLES AND HAWKS
The Wednesday morning meeting between North Dakota and Georgia Southern will be the first meeting between the two schools.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Georgia Southern enters Wednesday's game with an 0-2 record, posting a 78-63 loss at Furman and falling in its home-opener to Kennesaw State, 95-69. Junior Tatum Barber has been the Eagles leading scorer in the last two games, averaging 16.0 points per game with 6.0 rebounds per game. As a team, GSU is averaging 13 steals per game. Anita Howard leads the Eagles, and though she's 0-2 in her first two games, Howard entered the season with a 145-55 record in the last seven years as a head coach. In three seasons at Columbus State, she led the Cougars to two NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and an Elite Eight berth.

SISTER, SISTER
Sisters Alaina and Jaclyn Jarnot have been staples in the starting lineup in North Dakota's four games this season as they've started at the No. 2 and the No. 4 spots in the lineup in the first four games of the season.

The sisters are combining for 20.5 points per game, a 46.7 shooting percentage from the field that includes a 42.9 clip behind the three-point line, 4.0 assists, and 10.3 rebounds per game. They're also Nos. 1 and 2 at UND in three-point fields made with Jaclyn leading the Hawks with eight points.

While Jaclyn has been the Fighting Hawks offensive staple, Alaina has been the team's most consistent shoot as she's made 10-of-15 shots (.667), including a 4-of-6 clip behind the arc.

Last Sunday's versus Valparaiso was the first game at North Dakota the sisters each scored 10+ points as Alaina finished with 10, and Jaclyn scored 16.

THE CLUTCH GENE: IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR
In the last two games, Alaina and Jaclyn Jarnot have hit the go-ahead baskets for North Dakota, helping the Fighting Hawks to a pair of victories at The Betty.

Alaina hit the go-ahead basket against Rhode Island - a three-pointer 1:18 into the contest - to put North Dakota on top, 3-2, while Jaclyn hit the go-ahead layup just outside the key with 29 seconds left in regulation versus Valparaiso. Alaina also scored the final four points in the third quarter that tied UND and Valpo through three quarters, 54-54, and hit a three-pointer that forced a URI timeout after UND took a 15-point lead in the second quarter.

THE BEST BENCH PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE?
Melissa Leet and UND can claim that she's the most impactful bench player in The Summit League this season.

With no starts to her credit and averaging 23.5 minutes off the bench, Leet leads The Summit League in points per game amongst players without a start this season at 9.0. She's also The League's leader in blocks with 14 (3.5/G) and is fourth in rebounding at a clip of 8.0 per game.

Leet has already set new career highs in points, rebounds, and blocks this season as she pulled down 14 rebounds in the opener at Arizona, and scored 15 points with five blocks against Rhode Island.

THAT WAS QUITE THE STREAK
For the first time in 69-games, the Fighting Hawks were outrebounded by an opponent and won. UND was -4 to URI on Friday afternoon, marking the first time since Feb. 18, 2017, against Weber State that North Dakota won a game when posting a negative rebounding margin. The Rams finished 49 rebounds while North Dakota crashed the glass 44 times.

KEEPING IT TIGHT
On its current three-game winning streak, the University of North Dakota has won by five-or-less points each time out with a pair of two-point wins. The Hawks won at Grand Canyon in overtime, 78-76, and are coming off of a 65-63 win over Valparaiso at home.

COMPUTING THE NUMBERS: THE HAWKS GOT STREET CRED
Thanks in part three-straight wins and opening the season at Arizona, and the Wildcats climbing into the USA Today Coaches Poll after beating Texas by 25 points, the numbers crunched by Warren Nolan have put North Dakota in the top-15 in both strength of schedule and RPI.

As a result of the Fighting Hawks opened Tuesday morning with a strength of schedule index of 14th and an RPI ranking of No. 9. Except for losses to North Dakota, UND's foes are a combined 7-1 this season.

Warren Nolan is an analytics site that uses algorithms (road wins, overtime wins, scoring margin, head to head RPI, etc.) to compute rankings and other statistics across college athletics.

SCARED MONEY DON'T MAKE MONEY
North Dakota's youth movement has been well documented (seven true freshmen), and it's led to 96 three-point attempts with 27 makes. While it may look like a trigger happy bunch, the Fighting Hawks only rank 41st nationally and fourth in the conference three-point field goal attempts.

While the willingness to shoot has helped, the team has made its real money by sticking to its bread and butter - attacking the basket and finding a way to the free-throw line.

North Dakota is 30th in the country in free-throw attempts (93) and 32nd in makes (63), shooting 67.7 percent as a team. UND made five more shots at the charity stripe than Rhode Island last Friday (13-8) and only missed six attempts to Valparaiso's eight on Sunday. Both differences accounted for the Hawks margin of victory.

Against the Rams, in particular, the Fighting Hawks attacked the paint, accounting for 26 points. UND's aggressiveness also put URI's top-scorer on the bench after only 20 minutes on the floor as Nicole Jorgenson finished with four points and three rebounds. She entered the game with a scoring average of 26.0 points per game.

NEXT UP
North Dakota will return home to host a pair of games Sunday, Nov. 24 and Tuesday, Nov. 26 when it hosts Illinois State and Northland College.


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