Turnovers costing UND women's basketball in 3-game skid

GRAND FORKS UND junior guard Mikayla Aumer pointed to one area shed like to see her Fighting Hawks team improve: limiting turnovers and opponents extra possessions.

(Western Kentucky) scoring 24 points off turnovers, you never really want to see that, she said after UNDs 74-69 loss to the Hilltoppers on Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT It wasnt the first time an opponent had over 20 points off turnovers against UND this season.

It was the third-straight game all losses for the 2-3 Hawks.

Western Kentucky generated 24 points off turnovers, three days after Montana did the same in a 71-59 UND loss at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

Green Bay scored 23 points off turnovers en route to a 66-63 win over the Hawks in Grand Forks.

The Hawks overcame a 13-point deficit in the first quarter at Western Kentucky UND had eight turnovers in the opening quarter to lead by three at halftime.

But the Hilltoppers defense answered to help Western Kentucky to a win.

I thought we handled (the game) very well not necessarily the first quarter, but how we responded, Aumer said.

Handling their press, their pressure, their aggressiveness on defense.

That was a very good challenge for us, and I think that showed us that we're capable and we're growing as a team and can handle that type of defense looking forward.

Honestly, we're tougher than we think we are.

We're a young team.

We don't have a lot of experience.

We have a lot of learning we need to do and different things that we're experiencing, but I think we're tougher than we think we are in regards to that.

UND totaled 24 turnovers against Western Kentucky.

Junior center Walker Demers and second-year forward Kiera Pemberton each had four, while true freshman Jocelyn Schiller and Aumer ended with three each.

ADVERTISEMENT The Hawks now have 96 turnovers in five games, the 76th-most turnovers per game in Division I womens college basketball.

We knew we were going to be tested by a team that presses for 40 minutes the way they do, UND coach Mallory Bernhard said, and rev up intensity and put a lot of pressure on you, even on the half court.

We knew they were going to have some stretches where they're going to make some runs, but our team showed a lot of toughness, resiliency.

Of course, we want to get a little bit better in those little bits and pieces throughout the course of a game so that we can change the result.

UND will now turn its attention to its first back-to-back games this season with a two-game tournament this weekend, starting with Valparaiso at 1:30 p.m.

Saturday in Bethlehem, Pa.

This weekend is going to be a unique challenge, Bernhard said.

We've probably been asking our team to work on the mental toughness side of things and fight through some of those things.

I think this weekend might be a little bit more of a physical toughness.

It's our first back-to-back games, and that definitely provides a different challenge for us.

Good thing to get to do because if you're doing it right in March, that's what you end up with sometimes.

Let's see if we can maybe get a couple more people to step up and get into that rotation so that when you're handling it back to back, you can prepare for it physically appropriately.

Theres, of course, the mental test of going from one game to the next without really much prep, but I think that part they've been really good with working on, so I feel comfortable..

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