UND Makailah Dyer driving to the basket an opponent during 73-70 loss to the University of South Dakota earlier this season. Photo by Nick Nelson/ The Dakota Student

The UND women’s basketball team may have had a slow start, but it’s not affecting players now.

The Fighting Hawks are now 5-1 in their last six games, including their most recent 54-51 win this weekend against Big Sky Conference foe Northern Colorado.

While a duel between teams with 8-11 and 9-9 records does not look that attractive on paper, this game had a large impact on Big Sky playoff positioning.

The middle of the Big Sky standings includes five teams that are all one or two games apart from each other, including UND and Northern Colorado, who were both 4-4 coming into Saturday’s game.

“There all big this time of year,” UND coach Travis Brewster said. “So we have to position ourselves and keep working.”

Brewster’s message of working hard during this time of year paid off on the boards Saturday as the Hawks out-rebounded the Bears 46 to 22.

One of the main reasons behind UND’s dominance on the boards was junior Stephanie Smith. The 6-foot-6-inch center logged her first double-double at UND with 11 rebounds to go along with her 11 points.

“I just tried to do what I can do and contribute how I can,” Smith said. “Whether that is boxing out or getting little easy shots here and there.”

While getting easy shots may have been the goal, they proved to be hard to come by for both teams.

UND set the tone early, limiting UNC to only five points in the first quarter of the game. Things would even out as the game went on, with the Bears took a 22-20 lead into half because of some hot three-point shooting.

The second half would mirror the first, with UND dominating the third quarter, only to have UNC furiously try to rally back in the fourth.

The Hawks were able to clamp down on defense and hit key shots in order to put the game away, 54-51.

Makailah Dyer led the Hawks in points with 13 and was a big reason for UND’s serge on both ends of the court in the third quarter.

The team’s hard work also would pay off on defense as the Fighting Hawks limited the Bears to a measly 33.3 percent shooting performance.

“On the defensive end, we are really just trying to work,” Brewster said. “We weren’t great on defense but we weren’t bad either. It was just kind of a solid night for us, but we have to continue to play good basketball and take care of the ball a bit better.”

While it was enough to win on Saturday, going forward UND needs to handle the ball better as the team coughed up 20 turnovers to the Bears, who converted those turnovers into 15 points.

Now in the final third of the season, every win becomes important, especially ones against a close conference competitor. UND is now 5-4 in the Big Sky and currently sits in fifth place.

The games do not get easier from here on out. The Hawks will take their four-game win streak on the road against the two teams that sit above them in the Big Sky Conference.

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, UND squares off against third place Idaho State. Then at 3 p.m. on Saturday, the Hawks travel to Ogden, Utah, to face fourth place Weber State.

Alex Stadnik is the sports editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]