After two exhibition games at home, the UND women’s basketball team was ready to take on Colorado in a preseason battle, but the result wasn’t what it had hoped

North Dakota came up short 68-59 against Colorado last Saturday.

UND ended the first half with a two point lead, winning 34-31. Colorado came out hot in the second half, quickly scoring eight points and never relinquished the lead.

UND did not see the offense it was used to seeing in its previous two games, only shooting 35 percent from the field and 29 percent in the second half.

Leading the charge was senior Emily Evers, who tallied 21 points. She also played her part defensively, with 18 total rebounds in the game for a career high for the co-captain. Leah Szabla also came out big, scoring 15 points.

The defense wasn’t all there, allowing three Colorado players to score 10 or more points.

“They do a good job of running their offense,” UND coach Travis Brewster said. “You got two good players down there that bang and get after it, and they’re just relentless on the boards.”

The team will return home to play its first regular season game today at 8 p.m. against Milwaukee at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

It will be the first regular season home game against a Milwaukee team who won its only preseason game against SW Minnesota State in dominating fashion, 87-48.

UND is 1-6 in games to open the season, with its last win coming in the 2008-09 season, against the Eastern Washington Eagles.

Kyle Beauchamp is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].