After rolling into conference play winners of 6 out of their last 8, UND had every reason to come in confidence for their conference opener against arch rival NDSU.
This historical rivalry produced another good chapter between the two squads, as both team squad traded the lead several times and the deficit never getting above 8 points. In the end, it was the rival Bison who came away with the victory over the Hawks in Grand Forks.
When you look at the stats and how the game was played, you would honestly think that UND won. They shot much better than NDSU from the field and from 3 point line, they outrebounded the Bison 37-27 and got to the free throw line more (the old adage, make more free throws than your team takes was definitely in UNDs favor). So where was the problem?
An old bug-a-boo for UND Women’s teams: Turnovers. 16 of them to be exact and what NDSU did with those turnovers. They scored 17 points off of them. UND only forced 6 NDSU turnovers and scored zero points. The other key stat: While UND did outrebound NDSU by 10, NDSU crushed UND on the o-board, 13-6. They used that to outscore UND in 2nd chance points, 12-6. There was your difference.
UND got another strong performance from Kacie Borowicz, who had 25 points on 10-18 shooting, going 3-5 from downtown. She also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 4 assists. However, she had 7 turnovers in the contest. Olivia Lane also had a big night, with a double-double (13 points and 10 rebounds). Melissa Leet only had 2 points, but made up for it by grabbing 10 rebounds of her own and 3 blocks. DJ Davis came off the bench and gave UND a solid night (8 points and 2 assists) as the backup point guard.
The program continues to make progress after a year where everything went wrong. With that said, this was one that should have gone the Hawks way. They have to figure out how to take better care of the basketball against the top teams in the conference. Continuing to build the depth of the team will be key going forward into the conference season. The task doesn’t get any easier with a trip down I-29 next week to take on the two powers of the league: USD and SDSU.