UMC Women’s Basketball Falls at UND

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Women’s basketball team was outrebounded 49-32 resulting in 19 second-chance points for the University of North Dakota in a 78-54 UMC loss in an exhibition game played at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, ND.
North Dakota started the game well offensively as the Fighting Hawks jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Kylie Post (Fr., Corcoran) banked in a lay-up from the left side of the lane to giving the Golden Eagles their first basket of the game. Minnesota Crookston struggled to maintain possession of the ball early in the game amassing six turnovers before the first media timeout with 4:56 left in the first quarter. Trailing 14-2, Paige Weakley (Jr., Kearney, MO) knocked down a triple for UMC from the left corner cutting the deficit to 15-4 with 4:09 left in the first quarter. North Dakota’s Melissa Dailey (Sr., Portland, OR) got the crowd on their feet after picking the pocket of UMC’s Kylie Post, Dailey drove down the left side of the lane before delivering a behind the back pass to Juliet Gordon (Fr., Adelaide, Australia) who scored an uncontested lay-in giving UND an 18-5 lead. Abby Guidinger (Soph., Waukesha, WI) connected on a close-range shot cutting the deficit to 21-8 before Amber Schoenicke (Jr., Marshall, WI) scored a lay-up pulling the Golden Eagles within 24-10, but a late three-pointer with 6 seconds left in the first quarter gave the Fighting Hawks a 27-11 lead after 10 minutes of play.
In the second quarter, North Dakota scored the opening basket before back-to-back UMC three-pointers from Abby Guidinger and Mary Burke (Fr., Virginia) cut the deficit down to 29-17. With 3:42 left in the half, Isieoma Odor scored her second-straight lay-up cutting the deficit to 35-23.UMC scored four of the final six points to close out the half, all free-throws entering halftime down 40-27. “After we got down 16 after the first quarter I thought we adjusted nicely,” said UMC head coach Mike Roysland. “We had a chance to get settled in and we were able to take their transition game away and getting back to the room. I thought we did a better job at that.”
In the third quarter, Mary Burke opened the quarter with a pair of free-throws before a Paige Weakley three-pointer of a pass from Caitlin Michaelis cut the Fighting Hawks’ lead down to 42-32. A nice pass across the lane from Mary Burke to Amber Schoenicke resulted in a reverse lay-up dropping through the net cutting pulling UMC back within 13 before Abby Guidinger buried a triple in front of her own bench brought the Golden Eagles within 47-37. Trailing 50-37, Isieoma Odor sealed off her defender on the right block earning a trip to the free-throw line where she made a pair of free-throws cutting the North Dakota lead to 50-39 before a Lexi Klabo (Sr., Fargo, ND) lay-up for the Fighting Hawks re-established a 52-39 lead for UND. The Fighting Hawks added another five points to grow their lead to 57-39 before a late steal and drive down the left side of the paint earned Caitlin Michaelis a lay-up with a foul cutting the deficit to 57-42 after the free-throw closing out the third quarter. “We had some great opportunities in the second half that turned into situations where we could have narrowed down the lead a little bit,” added Roysland.
Trailing 65-46 in the fourth quarter, Abby Guidinger and Paige Weakley hit back-to-back three-pointers closing the gap to 65-52 with 6:33 left. North Dakota countered with four-straight points to take a 69-52 lead. Kylie Post continued to impress as UMC’s point guard down the stretch scoring UMC’s final points of the game at the free-throw line capping off her 10-point performance. North Dakota proved too much down the stretch as their size provided the Fighting Hawks with 20 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points as North Dakota topped Minnesota Crookston 74-58. Isieoma Odor led UMC with 10 rebounds along with 10 points for a double-double. “She’s improved, there’s no doubt she’s improved,” noted Roysland, “she’s doing what we want of her. I think when she sees the film, she will see some things she can build on that’s really going to make her tough in the NSIC. Abby Guidinger was the Golden Eagles leading scorer with 15 points in the loss. “There were some things I was pleased with but we didn’t get back and transition and we didn’t rebound and those were two of the things we were stressing all week long, but there was a lot of bright spots out here tonight,” summarized Roysland. “You’ve got to get into the fire and make things happen to see where your weaknesses are.”
The Golden Eagles will wrap up their preseason games on Saturday when UMC hosts the University of Northwestern (MN) at Lysaker Gymnasium at 4 p.m. with the Riverview Health Pregame Show beginning at 3:30 PM KROX. The University of North Dakota begins its regular season on Tuesday, November 6 at Syracuse beginning a six-game road trip to open their season.