At the end of last weeks article, I mentioned that this road trip was a good opportunity to make a bit of a statement. A trip to take on Western Illinois and St. Thomas: two teams that were currently ahead of them in the standings.
Statement made: UND was dominate in both of their games and extended their winning streak to 4 games and improved their record to 10-8 overall and 4-3 in the Summit.
Thursday: UND 76, WIU 65
The first stop on the road swing was to Malcomb, to take on a Western Illinois squad who had a solid non-conference season and looking to build off of it for a solid conference season. It was a good first test out of the gate for UND.
If you looked at the first quarter, there was reason for concern. UND started the game off cold, ice cold. They went 2-17 from the field. They were missing open looks that they usually make. Two things however, made things a little bit better for the Hawks. First off, they did go 6-6 from the free throw line and Western Illinois didn’t take full advantage of the cold shooting from UND.
The 2nd quarter was a different story. The Hawks found their rhythm on offense, shooting 56% from the field. It was around that time were Kacie Bororwicz took off, scoring 10 points in the 2nd quarter. She also got some help from Jolene Daninger from the bench, scoring 5 points. They used a 23 point 2nd quarter to turn a 5 point deficit into a 6 point lead at the half.
UND continued to dictate the pace in the 2nd half, as they used another good shooting quarter to expand their lead. They needed it because Western Illinois came out firing as well. Both teams shot well above 50% from the floor. UND had their best 3 point shooting quarter, going 4-5. Maggie Manson had two of those 3s, hitting those early in the 3rd quarter. Another jumper gave her 7 points in the quarter, and were big shots to keep up the lead for UND.
With 2:43 to go in the 3rd quarter. Western had cut the lead down to 47-45 at that point. UND decided to bust the game open with a 16-5 run over the next 4 minutes that proved to be the difference in the game. Borowicz again did most of the damage during that stretch, hitting jump shots in the paint and nailing a big 3. She also grabbed an offensive rebound that lead to a Leet 3 towards the end of the 3rd quarter.
Western couldn’t get any closer than 7 in the 4th quarter. Whenever Western tried to make a run, Clair Orth made sure to shut the door on any chances the Leathernecks had. She had 7 of her 9 points in the game in that quarter. Most of the game, she struggled to put the ball in the hoop but when it matter most, she cashed in her shots. Some more free throws from Borowicz later, and UND finished out a nice road win.
Borowicz led the charge with 33 points, tying her season high. She did it on 10-24 shooting and a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line. She also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Leet chipped in 13 points, 8 rebounds. Daninger had 7 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals in the contest.
If you take out the 2-17 from the field, UND shot 51% from the field the rest of the way. They also shot a respectable 42% from 3 (6-14) and was dominate from the free throw line (16-20). They won the rebounding battle 43-34, and crushed WIU in 2nd chance points 17-5. They also won the points off of turnover battle 13-7.
Western was led by Evan Zars, who had 17 points and 8 rebounds. It would be hard to imagine how the game would have turned out if they had taken full advantage of the cold start by UND.
The win got UND to .500 in conference play and gave them an opportunity to get above .500 when they traveled up to St. Paul to take on the Tommies
Saturday: UND 66, St. Thomas 55.
UND got to play the new kids on the block in St. Paul and looked very good in doing so. The score might have only shown an 11 point victory, but the game wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
The big story of this game was the play of Melissa Leet. She by far played the best game of her career. The Tommies had no answer for her on the inside. She had a career high 22 points on 10-11 shooting (the one miss was on a 3 pointer). She scored 10 of those points in the first quarter, where she not only showed off her post moves, but showed off her range, hitting a long 2 and then back to back 3s. Her scoring helped to lead UND to a 19-12 start to the quarter.
UND continued to push their advantage in the 2nd quarter, but the Tommies started to make a move. With 7 minutes to go and down 28-17, they made a 6-0 run to get it to 28-23. However, UND finished the half on a 13-4 run to go into the half 41-27. Kacie Borowicz scored 8 points in the half, including back to back buckets in the last 25 seconds of the half. She had 19 points in the contest on 8-17 shooting.
UND continued to expand their lead in the 3rd quarter. Leet and Borowicz continued to do their thing and Olivia Lane stepped in to provide 6 of her 17 points in that quarter. They never let St. Thomas get any traction, holding them to 26% shooting in the quarter and heading out to a 53-37 lead at the end of the 3rd.
UND pushed their lead up to 21 points with 8 minutes left in the game at 60-39. At that point, UND throttled down and St. Thomas chipped away at the lead but there wasn’t enough time. The game ended with a 66-55 victory for the Hawks.
In addition to her 22 points, Leet also grabbed 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Lane had a double-double, adding 13 rebounds to her 17 points. Jolene Daninger didn’t score, but chipped in 7 rebounds and 5 assists, and 2 blocks off of the bench.
Tommie guard Jade Hill put together a nice performance, scoring 19 points and dishing out 5 assists. The freshman from Minneapolis is one of the bright young guards in the conference and will be a force for the rest of the league to deal with for the next several years.
The team put together another solid shooting performance, shooting 47.5% from the field. Rebounding was about even, 38-37 in favor of UND. Best stat of the night? UND only turned the ball over 10 times in the contest.
For all of the struggles that this team had last year, this year has to be a satisfying rebound. For most of this weekend, UND showed that they were the better team. The program has taken several steps forward this season already and there is still a lot of season left to show even more improvement. Now, the team returns home for a 4 game homestand. Oral Roberts and Kansas City are the next two opponents and they will provide another good measuring stick as to how far this program has come. If you haven’t gotten a chance to check the team out, I would recommend doing so.