Mavericks Halted by North Dakota at Home

Saturday, February 11

Omaha, Neb.

12:05 P.M.

Omaha

12-14,7-8Summit League

North Dakota

15-9,8-6Summit League

Team	1	2	3	4	F
North Dakota	21	30	13	15	79
Omaha	9	11	22	19	61

Photo by: Bonnie Ryan

Mavericks Halted by North Dakota at Home

Feb 11, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

OMAHA, Neb. - The Mavericks win streak will end at three games as they could not overcome an early deficit and fell 79-61 vs. North Dakota on Saturday.

Omaha will hold at sixth place in the standings for now at 12-14 overall and 7-8 in the Summit League. Meanwhile, the Fighting Hawks climb to fourth place at 15-9 with an 8-6 conference mark.

Leaders For Omaha
Elena Pilakouta was the only Maverick to score in double-digits as she shot 3-for-4 and went 4-for-4 from the line for 10 points. This is her 21st double-digit scoring game of the year as she ends the week with 1136 career points. Pilakouta also led the team with seven total rebounds and three assists.

Leaders for North Dakota
Kacie Borowicz led the Fighting Hawks with 24 points, shooting 9-for-15 (60.0%), and also paced the team with three steals and four assists.

Team Stats
The Mavericks were outshot by the Fighting Hawks 54.4% (31-for-57) to 39.2% (20-for-51). Omaha did, however, end with the edge in FT% at 76.2% (16-for-21) to 69.2% (9-for-13).

Inside the First Quarter
From the get-go, the Mavericks were on the back foot as UND came out to an 11-1 lead by the five-minute mark, with Omaha's only point coming on a Kennedi Grant free throw.

Things picked up in the second half of the quarter, as Aaliyah Stanley had the first field goal of the day for Omaha with a three-pointer at 3:08. Morgann Gardner and Polina Nikulochkina followed up with a layup each, but by then the Fighting Hawks had already established a 21-9 lead.

Inside the Second Quarter
After a couple of early buckets from Ana Nikulochkina and Gardner within the first minute, the Fighting Hawks responded with 10 unanswered points to grow their lead to 34-13 by 6:40.

Ana and Pilakouta both went 2-for-2 at the line to cap off the first five minutes, but North Dakota came right back and outscored the Mavericks 14-3 over the rest of the period.

Inside the Third Quarter
Omaha was finally able to get into an offensive rhythm in the third quarter, starting off with a layup from Stanley and a triple from Grant 10 seconds apart at 7:45.

Later on, Ana would sink her first of the day from deep at 4:53, while Sam Mitchell scored eight points over the final three and a half minutes, including two shots from behind the arc.

Inside the Fourth Quarter
Trailing 64-42, the Mavericks managed to chip away a bit more at the deficit, as Pilakouta began the quarter with a layup and Jaylen Townsend went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to make it 66-48 with 6:31 remaining.

Despite two more free throws from Townsend and a couple of baskets from Gardner, Omaha could not stop the Fighting Hawks' offense as they ultimately held on to win despite being outscored 19-15 in the quarter.

Next Up
The Mavericks only have three games left in the regular season as they head out of town next week for their final road trip of the season, facing South Dakota on Thursday at 7 p.m. and South Dakota State on Saturday at 2 p.m.