North Dakota State University (3-3, 0-0 Summit League) is scheduled to open The Summit League schedule on the road this weekend ... The Bison play IUPUI (0-6,0-0 Summit League) at 4:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday, Dec. 5, in The Jungle (1,215) at Indianapolis ... NDSU has won two straight games over Ball State (65-57) and Denver (62-50) ... IUPUI has lost six games to start the season heading into Wednesday’s game with IU-Southeast ... The Bison play Western Illinois (3-3, 0-0 Summit League) at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7, at Waste Management Court in Macomb ... WIU hosts South Dakota State on Saturday.

The Series: This will be the fifth meeting between North Dakota State and IUPUI ... The series is even at 2-2 ... NDSU has won both games in Fargo and the Jaguars have won both games in Indianapolis ... This will be the sixth meeting between North Dakota State and Western Illinois ... The Bison won all three meetings last season including a 46-43 win at The Summit League Tournament in Brookings ... NDSU rallied from a 15-point deficit with 11 minutes left against the Fighting Leathernecks ... The Bison lead the series 4-1.

Bison On Radio: WDAY 970 AM of Fargo is the flagship station of the Bison Radio Network ... Stations on the Bison Radio Network for the basketball season include WDAY-AM 970 (Fargo), KQLX-FM 106.1 (Lisbon/select games) and KPOK-AM 1340 (Bowman) ... Scott Miller, WDAY 970 AM sports director, will call the play-by-play, and Jeremy Jorgenson, NDSU director of athletic broadcasting, will provide the color analysis ... There is a 20 minute-pregame and a 20-minute postgame ... Miller hosts Bison Feedback featuring women’s basketball coach Carolyn DeHoff and men’s basketball coach Saul Phillips on Tuesdays throughout the season ... Game audio and Bison Feedback are free and available on GoBison.com.

GoBison.com Webcasts/Live Stats: Live stats and live audio for both games will be available free of charge on GoBison.com ... Live video will be available by subscription to GoBison.com All Access starting at $7.95 OR by subscription to SummitTV on TheSummitLeague.org starting at $19.95.

Bison Fast Break: North Dakota State is 3-0 when committing fewer turnovers ... Six-foot senior forward Ashley Samuelson (Underwood, Minn.) connected on 9 of 9 field goal attempts on her way to a career-high 19 points in the 65-57 win over Ball State (11-27-09) ... She was one make and attempt away from the school single-game record (13x14, Darci Steere at South Dakota State, 1-8-94) ... Freshman guard Hannah Linz was 1 of 10 from three-point line before hitting a pair of treys in the first half against Denver (11-29-09) including one at the shot clock buzzer ... Six-foot-five freshman Janae Burich (Roseville, Minn.) netted a game-high 19 points, had a season-high six rebounds and blocked two shots in the 68-60 loss to the Cowgirls ... Burich is averaging 11.8 points, 5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots per game ... She is hitting 58.6 percent from the field ... Burich blocked five shots in the loss at Minnesota on Nov. 24 ... Burich will miss her third straight game with an illness ... Questions about the health of 5-11 redshirt sophomore Abby Plucker (Parker, S.D.) were quickly answered ... Plucker tied a career-high with 20 points and added eight rebounds in the 64-62 win at UNI (11-13-09) ... Over the first two games, Plucker averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds, hitting 45.8 percent (11-24) from the field and 85.7 (6-7) percent from the free throw line ... Plucker played in only nine games last year before being sideline by a shoulder injury at Denver (12-15-08) ... Sophomore Katie Birkel (Lincoln, Neb.) not only hit the game-winning jumper with 46 seconds left at UNI, but also came up with a steal with 4 seconds remaining ... Birkel tied a career-high with four steals against Ball State (11-27-09) and at nationally-ranked DePaul (11-15-09) ... Birkel tied a career-high with eight rebounds vs. Wyoming (11-24-09) ... Former Summit League Player of the Year Lisa Bue is playing pro basketball in Finland ... On the NDSU career charts, Katie Birkel is 1st in minutes played average (33 mpg), Inger Hodgson is 5th in three-point shooting at 37.2 percent (86-231) and Jill Zaruba is 9th in free throw shooting at 78.7 percent (133-169) ... Zaruba has made her last 10 free throws in a row after missing her first two attempts of the season.

NDSU Third in Summit Preseason Poll, Hodgson First Team: For the second straight season, South Dakota State was tabbed as the favorite to win the 2009-10 Summit League Women’s Basketball Championship as selected by the annual preseason poll of league coaches, SIDs and media ... The Jackrabbits placed four players on the Preseason All-League Second Team and collected all but two first-place votes ... Oakland placed second in the poll with one first-place vote, while North Dakota State held down the third slot ... Oral Roberts garnered the other first-place vote and was fourth, followed by IPFW in fifth, just two points ahead of IUPUI, who placed sixth. UMKC, Western Illinois, Southern Utah and Centenary rounded out the poll ... UMKC guard Chazny Morris was named the Preseason Player of the Year ... Morris was joined on the first team by North Dakota State guard Inger Hodgson, IPFW guard Chelsey Jackson, Oakland guard Melissa Jeltema, Oral Roberts guard/forward Janae Voelker and IUPUI center Julia Whitted ... Selected third, the Bison return all-league second team member Hodgson and her 12.6 ppg to the lineup, along with all-newcomer team selection guard Katie Birkel, who averaged 10 points and 3.1 assists last season .. Second-year head coach Carolyn DeHoff also welcomes back forward Abby Plucker, the team’s leading scorer at 14.2 ppg through her first nine games before an injury ended her season.

Bison In The Summit League: North Dakota State was well represented in final 2009 Summit League statistics (league games only) ... Individually in the top 10, Inger Hodgson was tied for 1st in three-pointers made (2.4 avg.), 4th in steals (2 spg), 2nd in three-point shooting (.473, 44-93), 6th in scoring (14.3 ppg), 7th in field goal shooting (.478, 88-184) and tied for 7th in assists (3.2 apg); Jerri Penley was 1st in field goal shooting (.560, 61-109), 3rd in blocked shots (2.2 bpg) and 9th in rebounding (6.7 rpg); Katie Birkel was 9th in assists (3.1 apg), and Jill Zaruba was 2nd in free throw shooting (.878, 43-49) ... Team-wise (top three), the Bison were 1st in field goal percentage defense (.348, 358-1029); 2nd in field goal shooting (.432, 387-896) and free throw shooting (.752, 258-343), and 3rd in scoring defense (58.6 ppg), scoring margin (+2.8 ppg) and blocked shots (4.2 bpg).

North Dakota State Signs Four: North Dakota State University head women’s basketball coach Carolyn DeHoff announced that 5-foot-11 forward Ali Browning (Iowa City, Iowa/Regina H.S.); 6-2 center Miki Stephenson (Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead H.S.); 5-7 point guard Kelsey Peltier (Dunseith, N.D./Bottineau H.S.), and 6-foot forward Lauren Dudenhoeffer (Lee’s Summit, Mo./North H.S.) have signed national letters of intent to play basketball and continue their education at NDSU.

Bison Against The Nationally-Ranked: North Dakota State is 0-6 vs. nationally-ranked teams since making the move from NCAA Division II to Divison I in 2004-05 (L 59-76 at #18 New Mexico, 12-10-06; L 63-93 at #25 Middle Tennessee, 1-2-07; L 70-79 at #12 Minnesota, 1-26-07; L 48-64 at #20 South Dakota State, 1-24-09; L 36-70 vs. #18/22 South Dakota State, 2-21-09; L 65-77 vs. #17/25 Depaul, 11-15-09).

The DeHoff File: Carolyn DeHoff (Arizona State, ‘91) is in her second year as head coach of the Bison ... DeHoff has an 19-16 record including 12-6 in The Summit League ... She recorded her first win against Valley City State on Nov. 21 ... DeHoff became the ninth head women’s basketball coach in the program’s 45-year history on April 11, 2008 ... DeHoff was the associate head coach in 2007-08 on Elaine Elliott’s Utah staff ... The Utes finished 27-5 overall and won the Mountain West Conference regular season championship with a 16-0 record ... Utah lost in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament ... Her duties at Utah included coordinating recruiting efforts, point guard development, organization and planning of the schedule, coordination of academic affairs and directing summer camps ... During her stay in Salt Lake City, the Utes won 123 games, three regular season conference championships and one MWC tournament title ... Utah made three trips to the NCAA tournament including an Elite Eight berth in 2006 and a WNIT appearance in 2007. The Utes also had a pair of WNBA first round draft picks, along with second round pick in this year’s draft ... Her 17-year coaching resume includes a five-year stop at Weber State. The Wildcats went from a sub-.500 program to a back-to-back NCAA tournament participant ... Weber State won consecutive Big Sky titles and posted back-to-back 20 win seasons ... Prior to Weber State, DeHoff was the top assistant at Wyoming for seven seasons and also was an assistant coach at Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Ariz ... A standout high school player at Cheyenne (Wyo.) East, DeHoff was a Street & Smith’s All-America her senior year ... She played at Arizona State University from 1987-90, where she was a captain ... A native of Cheyenne, DeHoff graduated from Arizona State in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and physical education ... She was inducted into her high school athletic hall of fame in September 2008.

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