Last season was one of the more difficult seasons in UND women’s basketball history. Close losses, injuries, and COVID all reared their ugly heads last season in a difficult 2-19 season. So hope springs eternal as UND was looking to put the past behind them and start Year 2 of the Bernhard Era.
I was curious to see how they would look with their new pieces and a decent core of returning players. Then I turned on the game on ESPN+ and saw that only 9 players were on the bench.
Uh oh.
UND was without the services of Kacie Borowicz, Juliet Gordon, Olivia Lane, and Sammiyah Hoskin in the contest. This was 3 starters and a key reserve from the lineup, and given that UND wants to give Miranda VanderWal a redshirt season, gave UND only 8 available players in the game.
Nevertheless, the game played on. UND put together their best, but fell 72-57 to the Weber State Wildcats. Lets talk about the game.
1st Quarter: Weber 26, UND 14
2nd Quarter: Weber 43, UND 27 (17-13 Weber in Quarter scoring)
3rd Quarter: Weber 53, UND 44 (17-10 UND in Quarter scoring)
4th Quarter: Weber 72, UND 57 (19-13 Weber in Quarter scoring)
The game got off to a good start for UND, Clair Orth and Maggie Manson each hit a corner 3 and helped UND to get out to a 12-7 lead, which then turned to a 12-10 lead at the first media timeout. At that point of the game, UND was 4-6 from the field and hit 2 out of 3 from the 3 point line. Then the next 10 minutes turned disastrous for the Hawks, which ended up being the difference in the game. UND proceeded in that 10 minutes to go 1-15 from the field and made 4 free throws. The team had just as many turnovers (6) as they did points (6). Weber took full advantage, going on a 23-6 run. When Deja Davis hit a layup with 4:46 to go in the half, Weber had a 13 point lead. The lead ballooned to a 16 point Weber lead to go into the half.
The 3rd quarter ended up being the best quarter for UND. They made several little mini-runs to cut into the deficit. However, Weber always seemed to have an answer for each one. Orth, Davis, and Anderson had nice 3rd quarters and UND was able to get it as close as 9 towards the end of the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter, Weber and UND continued to trade mini-runs. UND got it to within 9 with 3:42 to go, but Weber went on a 5-0 that virtually closed it out.
The Good
-Despite the short-handedness, UND did give their best effort and was probably 1-2 plays away from really making a run of it. Outside of that 10 minute stretch, they were pretty even with Weber.
-Deja Davis had some nice moments in her first game in a UND uniform, she got to the free throw line a lot in the ball game, making 8 out of 12 shots. She scored 10 points in the contest.
-Jodi Anderson also had a decent performance in her first game as well, scoring 11 points and grabbing 9 rebounds off of the bench.
-Clair Orth had a solid game, scoring 15 points and dishing out 5 rebounds to lead UND. Looking forward to see how she grows as a leader.
-UND won the turnover battle 25-17 and scored 26 points off of turnovers.
The Bad
-Lets get this out of the way, UND did not have the services of a lot of key players (as of this writing, I have no insight as to what happened, nor do I want to wildly speculate). For a problem trying to gain some traction after a few rough years, this is the last thing that they need to happen.
-Getting Outrebounded 48-29 was tough. Weber had just as many defensive rebounds as UND had total rebounds.
-They also lost the 2nd chance points 21-7 to Weber.
-Despite making runs, Weber always seemed to push back in the 2nd half. They just couldn’t make that 1-2 more plays to really make this a game.
The team had some nice moments and there are some things to build upon. Anderson and Davis gave UND a decent 1st game in their UND careers. UND heads down to El Paso to take on UTEP on Saturday to get that first win of the season.