UND senior Chad Calcaterra attempts to shoot the ball against Dickinson State earlier this season on Dec. 19. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

The UND men’s basketball team will return home this weekend with a mission to end its losing woes.

The team’s single win in its past five games will serve as motivation to end Saturday’s game against Northern Colorado on a high note.

The past three games have been abysmal for UND, including a last minute, heart-breaking loss against Portland State last Saturday, 75-73.

“Honestly, I thought we really competed in the second half, but for the second or third game in a row, we didn’t rebound,” UND coach Brian Jones said. “And until we change our mindset in that area, games like this are going to happen.”

While most students are just getting back into the swing of things of the semester, the team has been hard at work trying to get better. UND played Sacramento State in a close battle on Jan. 8, losing 63-61 on a final second basket.

Jones sees bright spots in his team’s efforts, but knows he needs to see more.

“Offensively, I thought we executed well, but you cannot miss that many point-blank layups when you get to the rim,” he said, “Defensively, we didn’t do a good enough job of keeping them off the glass. Second chance points were 10-2, and that was a big difference in the game.

Against Portland last Saturday, UND scored 53 points in the second half of the game, a season high.

Sophomores Quinton Hooker and Braxton Tucker have emerged as strong scorers for the squad. Hooker dropped 18 points, a career high, while Tucker led the team in scoring with 20 points.

Hooker has scored double digits in the past five games, averaging 14.5 points per game in Big Sky play.

Another bright spot in the previous games is junior Terrel de Rouen, leading UND in steals, averaging almost nine per game. He has helped lead UND to a Big Sky record of 58 turnovers.

UND played the first 11 of its 13 games on the road, and, on UND’s previous three-game homestand, it hasn’t given fans much to cheer about.

This weekend, Northern Colorado will come to town white hot, winning its last three games and looking to add a fourth consecutive win.

For UND to succeed against Northern Colorado, the big men must show up to compete against a strong offense led by Tevin Svihovec, who is currently averaging 21 points per game and was named player of the week last week.

Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. this Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

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