West Central Reporter

Leatherneck WBB Falls to UND

Western Illinois women's basketball played Thursday evening (Feb. 23), falling to the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 86-70 at Western Hall. The Leathernecks host North Dakota State on Saturday in the final regular season game of the 2022-23 season, with tip off scheduled for 2 p.m.
 
"I thought that we hung around just enough to have a shot coming out in the second half. But again, when you have veteran players out there like Kacie Borowicz and Claire Orth, they get easy baskets and get to the free throw line. A point of emphasis was to not let them shoot a lot of free throws and they shot 25," head coach JD Gravina said. "They're a good team, I mean six of their top seven are seniors… There's a reason they're tied for second place in the conference.
 
"When you have no room for error it's just hard," Gravina added. "We hit a three, they came down and hit a three or got to the line. It's just hard when you don't have any room for error."
 
Jayda Adams made her first start of the season as North Dakota scored the game's first three points. Carla Flores responded with triple of her own to ignite a quick 7-3 WIU run that put the team ahead by one with just under seven minutes remaining in the first quarter. After a Mallory McDermott three was followed by two UND buckets in the final 40 seconds of the first, the Fighting Hawks led, 22-19, after one quarter of play.
 
Jada Thorpe opened the Western Illinois account in the second quarter with her first three of the game but the UND defense locked in and held Western to 4-15 from the field in for the rest of the quarter, as Western trailed 43-32 at the halftime buzzer. The Leathernecks made several attempts to come back during the second half but struggled to get stops, making big plays on the offensive end that were countered with Fighting Hawk buckets on the other end as North Dakota rode out an 86-70 victory.
 
Thorpe led the team in scoring with 16 points, shooting 5-10 from the field and 4-6 from three point range, also finishing with two rebounds and one steal while scoring nine in the fourth quarter alone. Mallory McDermott added 11 points and three rebounds and shot a perfect 4-4 at the line while Anna Deets finished with eight points and five rebounds. Alissa Dins scored six and grabbed 13 rebounds for her seventh game this season with double-digit rebounds, while Adams finished with six points on 2-5 shooting from deep. Elizabeth Lutz paired four points with a team-high four assists while five different players recorded a steal.
 
As a team, Western assisted on 15 of its 22 made baskets and shot 18-21 (85.7%) at the line, hitting eight shots from deep and winning the rebound battle, 44-37. With 13 offensive rebounds, WIU scored 10 second chance points and 28 in the paint while the bench accounted for 41 total points. The Leatherneck defense utilized five steals and three blocks to force 14 Fighting Hawk turnovers, scoring 11 points of turnovers and four on the fast break.
 
Western Illinois plays host to North Dakota State on Saturday (Feb. 25) for the final game of the 2022-23 regular season. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. with a pregame ceremony to recognize both seniors, Jayda Adams and Elizabeth Lutz, scheduled to start at approximately 1:45 p.m.
 
"We're playing more for more than our record or our place in the conference on Saturday. It's our last home game, we're playing for some pride, we're playing for the future of our program and we're playing for some confidence going into the conference tournament," Gravina said. "There's still a lot to play for."
 
"We'll reflect on tonight's game," Thorpe added. "We definitely want to get a win for our seniors." 

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