The women’s basketball team had a rough trip out west last weekend where it suffered two losses —  the first to Montana State last Thursday, the second to Montana on Saturday.

While North Dakota remains No. 1 in Big Sky conference standings, Montana has come within a half-game of UND (16-8, 11-4 BSC) for the top spot in the league.

Thursday’s game against Montana State saw UND take its first loss in six games as it was outplayed in the second half for the first of two times over the weekend. North Dakota lost to the sixth-ranked Bobcats 78-67 and were unable to bounce back Saturday as Montana turned UND’s losing streak into two.

Despite the second loss in a row for UND, head coach Travis Brewster remains calm.

“I liked our effort today, which was much more common for how we’ve played all season long,” Brewster said after Saturday’s loss. “We have some work to do, obviously, but our goals are still out there in front of us to achieve. It was a good college environment to play in. We just came up a couple plays short.”

The Dahlberg Arena held 3,456 fans Saturday as Montana (16-7, 10-4) came back from a nine point deficit at the half and outrebounded the Green and White 38-37, the first team to do so since UND played Iowa 14 games ago. The Lady Griz pulled together for a 52-49 win to up the team’s home record to 12-1 and move closer to the top spot.

North Dakota returns to the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center for its final regular season home game Saturday when the ladies will take on fourth-ranked Sacramento State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., and the four seniors, two of which are injured, will be recognized as part of senior day.

UND will have three more away games to continue its contention for the top seed, regular season champion and host of the Big Sky Conference Tournament — which will take place at the regular season champion’s home court.

Marie Monson is the multimedia editor for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].