GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Sophomore
Emily Evers' career night led her North Dakota squad to its first home win of
the season with a 76-42 victory over Air Force on Tuesday at the Betty
Engelstad Sioux Center. Evers, who finished with career-highs of 17 points and
15 rebounds, led a dominant effort in the paint by the home team as the Green
and White outscored the Falcons 28-10 down low.
“Our staple has got to be the defensive end of the floor,” UND
head coach Travis Brewster said of his team's 30 points off Air Force turnovers.
“Offensively, we were working pretty hard in the first half and we talked about
it at halftime to make sure we moved the ball around and made sure we got
everybody involved offensively.”
UND-- as was the case in last Friday's win at North Dakota
State—raced out of the gate early and got a huge lead. North Dakota (2-4) scored
the first seven points of the game and led 14-2 after junior Madi Buck
connected on a 3-pointer for part of her 13-point effort Tuesday. The home team's
advantage never fell below single digits after that. The junior had seven
points during that opening spurt and senior Nicole Smart added three first-half
triples as UND took a 36-19 lead into halftime.
The Falcons turned the ball over 15 times in the opening 20
minutes to contribute to their woes and UND made them pay by scoring 16 points
off those miscues.
Evers, after missing on four
of her first five shots, finished the game 7-of-14 for a game-high 17
points in just 14 minutes. She also added nine offensive rebounds to her stat
line as well as a pair of assists and two blocks.
Her career night, coupled with a career best from Cy'erra Mills, powered UND past the Falcons as North Dakota kept the intensity cranked
up after its emotional win over its arch-rival Friday. Mills registered a
personal-best seven points and racked-up six steals to lead the defensive
effort.
North Dakota had three players in double figures scoring
with Buck chipping-in 13 and Smart collecting 11 in the victory.
Air Force (0-8) was led by Simone Potts' 13 points with
Katie Hilbig adding nine points and eight rebounds.
UND will continue its four-game homestand Saturday when it
entertains Drake at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center at 2:00 p.m.
Notes: All UND 11 players that dressed Tuesday scored …
Katie Houdek was unavailable due to injury (day-to-day) … Allyssa Wall played
her second game of the season, scoring five points, grabbing five rebounds and
adding three blocked shots in 13 minutes off the bench … Evers other career double-double
came in a win last season at Chicago State (13 pts, 13 rbs) … UND avenged last
season's loss at Air Force (65-54, 1/5/12).