Winners of 4 straight, UND returned home to host Oral Roberts and Kansas City to finish the first half of the conference season.
These were going to be two tough challenges for UND, an ORU and UMKC squad that could score in bunches.
UND responded to both challenges and held serve at home to finish the first half of conference play in 3rd place with a 6-3 conference record.
Thursday: UND 53, Oral Roberts 34
When UND went down to Tulsa last year to play a pair of game against Oral Roberts, they gave up 84 and 90 points respectively in two losses.
Lets just say that UND dished out a little bit of defense in the matchup in Grand Forks. How about holding the Golden Eagles to 34 points in the entire game! The most that Oral Roberts scored in a quarter was 10, and they did that in the first and the fourth quarter. They held the Golden Eagles to a paltry 22% shooting percentage. Their finest performance was in the 2nd quarter, where UND held ORU to 6 points for the entire quarter and 2-16 shooting!
Anchoring this impressive defensive performance was Melissa Leet, who blocked an impressive 9 shots, nearly getting a unique double-double. She also grabbed 12 rebounds in the contest as well. She only had 3 points in the contest, but her present in the middle made life difficult for the Eagles on the offensive side of the basketball.
UND didn’t have a big scoring quarter in this contest, they just used steady offense to build up their lead throughout the game. Even in their worst quarter of shooting (the 4th), they still manage to outscore ORU because of their great defense. UND got off to a 14-10 start at the end of the first quarter and build their lead from there. By half, they were up 26-16.
Kacie Borowicz continued her impressive play, leading the team with 21 points on 8-19 shooting. She also grabbed 6 rebounds. Claire Orth bounced back after a tough performance against St. Thomas with a 13 point performance. Olivia Lane rounded out the scorers in double figures with 11.
UND also smashed ORU on the boards, 46-33. In addition to the 12 Rebounds that Leet grabbed and the 6 that Borowicz grabbed, UND got some rebounding from their bench, with Jolene Daninger providing 6 rebounds and Sammiyah Hoskin grabbed 5 rebounds off of the bench.
It was by far their best defensive performance since joining the Summit League against a non-division 1 opponent. That win made it 5 in a row for the Hawks and they were looking to end the 1st half of the season with 6 straight against a good Kansas City Squad.
Saturday: UND 78, Kansas City 66
The game started off back and forth in the first quarter. Like with the St. Thomas game, Leet got off to another hot start, scoring 10 out of the teams 17 points. Neither team got off to more than a 5 point lead, but UND lead by 2 at the end of the quarter.
The 2nd quarter was a high scoring affair. After being held off of the score sheet for the first quarter and a half, Kacie Borowicz started to heat up on the floor. She exploded for 12 2nd quarter points, mostly by attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line. She helped to expand the UND lead slowly and by the end of the half, UND finished with a 9 point lead, 40-31.
The 2nd half turned into a roller coaster affair. After UND stormed out to a 9-2 run to make in 49-33 with 7:45 to go, the Roos began their first attempt at a comback. For the next 5 minutes, Kansas City went on a 18-5 run to cut the lead to 54-51. Brooke McDavid and Kiara Bradley was leading the charge from the inside and the outside. UND was also getting into foul trouble with their bigs and the offense was starting to hit a dry spell. Things were not looking good for the home team and for the first time in a couple weeks, a team truly pushed back. How would UND respond?
Enter Orth, Manson, and Borowicz. UND finished the quarter on a 12-1 run. Clair Orth started the run with 3 free throws. Then Maggie Manson found her stroke from the outside, hitting back to back 3s to extend their lead. Then Kacie Borowicz finished the run with a old fashioned 3 point play. In a blink of an eye, the lead was back to 66-52 at the end of the quarter.
For the 4th quarter, Kansas City made another run once again led by McDavid and Bradley. This time it was a 12-2 run. With 5:48 to go, it was 68-64 UND. Yet another opportunity to respond for UND.
Kacie Borowicz came with the response. In fact, all the points that were score in the quarter were from Borowicz. She started the charge with an old fashioned 3 point play. Then in the next possession, hit a 3 pointer to expand the lead to 8. Then finished the 10-2 run with 4 straight free throws that gave UND a 78-66 win and get to 6 wins in a row.
Borowicz had a great day again, scoring 27 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. She continued to show why she is one of the best free throw shooter in the nation, going 12-12 from the line. Leet was in foul trouble for most of the game, limited to 22 minutes, but was impactful scoring 16 points, most of this in the first half and grabbing 9 rebounds. Manson and Orth rounded out the double-digit scoring with 13 and 10 points respectively and were very important in the 3rd quarter to hold off the Roos charge.
One special shoutout goes out to Sammiyah Hoskin. With Lane and Leet in foul trouble for most of the game, she stepped up coming off of the bench. She grabbed 9 rebounds and dished out 5 assists and 2 blocks. It was possibly the best weekend she has put together. If she can continue this progress, it will provide another solid player off of the bench for UND.
Three weeks ago, this team was sitting at 0-3 and near the bottom of the conference. Now, they stormed their way up the standings and now find themselves in 3rd place, with big wins against Oral Roberts and Kansas City. The North Dakota State Loss at home was one that they probably wanted back. I tweeted out that Coach Bernhard should get some serious conversation for Summit League Coach of the Year and I fully believe that she would win the award based on the first half.
However… the 2nd half of the season starts in earnest and it will provide UND with serveral challenges. The biggest? Home games against an SDSU squad who just dropped 114 points against Western Illinois and a USD squad that can really crank it up on defense. Time to see how UND can matchup with the schools from the 605, this time around.
Get to the Betty on Thursday and Saturday and get behind this squad.