Sophomore Makailah Dyer dribbles the ball at Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student.

There’s no place like home — at least that’s what the UND women’s basketball team might be thinking.

After playing four games on the road, North Dakota rushed onto the court to a warm welcome from the 1,300 fans in attendance at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Tuesday night.

UND faced off against Dickinson State, winning 88-40. Prior to Tuesday night, UND had won all six of the matchups between the two teams.

This game didn’t require any come-from-behind miracle or strong individual efforts. The game started with both teams hitting a majority of their shots from the floor.

Dickinson stayed neck and neck with UND, even leading 17-16 at one point. This is when UND pulled ahead and didn’t look back on its way to a 33 to 10 scoring outbreak to end the first half.

UND had to make some in game adjustments to eventually pull ahead from a Dickinson team that made seven of its first nine shots.

“It’s a dangerous game to play when we come back home,” UND coach Travis Brewster said. “Our players realized we had a little bit of work to do. They seemed pretty understanding in the locker room and its one of those tough games, we’ve been gone so long we haven’t really had anytime to practice”

The second half was all about defense where UND only allowed DSU to score an abysmal 13 points. UND would go on to add 39 points to win in convincing style 88 to 40 to improve to seven straight wins against Dickinson and six straight on the season.

UND’s stars shone bright, Emily Evers recorded her fourth double-double of season and adding 17 points on top of that. Mia Loyd led the entire team in scoring, draining 19 points and Megan Lauck put away another 17. Leah Szabla would be the fourth UND player to hit double digits in scoring as she finished with 10 points on the night.

This win had several implications. With a mark of 6-1 to start the season, it extends UND’s best start to a season. It is also the longest winning streak of Brewster’s time at UND.

“It was fun, but it’s good to be home,” senior Megan Lauck said. “It was one of those games where you have expectations of certain things and you maybe play a different way than you should have so we definitely picked it up.”

The next week of games could be an early indication of just how good this UND team is in two early pivotal games of the season against NDSU and the University of Minnesota.

Tip off against NDSU is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Scheels Arena.

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