The stakes going into the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on the night of Thursday, February 16th could not have been higher. It was the penultimate home game of the season and against Oral Roberts, the team tied with University of North Dakota for second in the Summit League. With the stakes high and the will to win even higher, the University of North Dakota defeated Oral Roberts 108-100, a 208-point game.  

The game started out in Oral Roberts’ favor, taking a commanding lead in the first quarter. They are a fast team and pushed UND to keep pace with them up and down the court. In the early part of the game, UND seemed to struggle with the pace, but they quickly found their footing and forced Oral Roberts into foul trouble and ended the first half with a narrow lead.  

The third quarter, historically a portion of the game UND has struggled with, was all UND with multiple players scoring three-pointers and building up a good lead going into the fourth. However, with the quick pace that Oral Roberts plays no lead is safe. Even though UND was still playing well and pulled away in the fourth, Oral Roberts answered back making the final score only an 8-point victory.  

Kacie Borowicz said about the third quarter play against Oral Roberts, “everyone stepped up for us. Our threes were falling. We had a lot of assists that quarter…They came back a little bit, but we really played well as a team and didn’t let them get too many offensive rebounds and just played our game.”  

“You just can’t let up,” Head Coach Mallory Bernhard said. “We created some turnovers. I thought our press did some nice things for us today. And honestly, we crashed boards, so that was huge to just go get some extra possessions for ourselves.”  

Even though the game was tough and high scoring the Hawks were still able to complete another win in the Betty. The win was vital as it put UND ahead of Oral Roberts tied with only NDSU for second in the Summit League. Positioning and seating is growing even more important with the Summit League Tournament rapidly approaching, the higher the ranking the more favorable the match up for this amazing North Dakota women’s basketball team.  

Maeve Hushman is a Dakota Student Sports Reporter. She can be reached at [email protected].