MISSOULA, Mont.-- North Dakota hit a season-best eight three-pointers on just 15 attempts, but it was not enough as third-seeded Northern Colorado advanced with a 72-64 win Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference tournament. UND now falls to 17-14 overall and will await word of a postseason tourney bid, to be announced late Monday.

"Today's game reflected our season," UND head coach Travis Brewster said. "There are things that we do really well and some things we have to work upon as a group and when we work on those things as a group it gives us a chance. I'm not dissappointed in this ball club, I thought we improved in some areas and we started out the year the right way. With a younger team, sometimes you get stunted here and there. That's where you have to grow a little bit more. It's an honor to be in this tournament but we didn't set out to be a one-and-done team and it's hard to swallow."

Junior Mia Loyd led a quintet of UND players in double figures scoring with 14 points, a dozen of those coming in the second stanza. Senior Megan Lauck had 13 first-half points while sophomore Makailah Dyer and senior Siri Burck each chipped-in 11 and senior Emily Evers added 10.

Lauck's effort came in the first half, all in a five-minute span. Her first three cut the Bears' lead to a bucket at 25-23 with 6:20 remaining. She followed with a tough running lay-in a possession later but a quick 8-0 UNC run had the Bears with their largest lead at 10 with three minutes and change to go before the break.

Lauck then went on a personal 8-0 run of her own, book-ending threes around another jumper to score 13 straight North Dakota points and melt the UNC lead back down to two with 90 seconds left. It would be a 37-33 UNC advantage at halftime.

In the second half, Dyer hit a long three to beat the shot clock then had a running layup to give UND its first lead of the second half at 40-39. The lead changed hands five times before the dust settled. With UND trailing by a pair, Burck nailed a three to reclaim a 45-44 edge. That would be the final time North Dakota had the lead, however, as Northern Colorado leaned on its senior duo of Stephanie Lee (24 points) and D'Shara Strange (12 points, nine rebound, four steals) to keep its distance.

A Kyleigh Hiser three made it a four-point Bear lead, but Loyd powered in back-to-back baskets down low to re-knot the game at 49-all. From there, Lee hit tough basket after tough basket, with a turnaround jumper with just over four minutes left giving the three-seed a 63-57 cushion.

UND would make one final push as Burck tripled again to cut the lead in half and Dyer had another deep bomb in the final minute to make it a three-point game. Lee rattled in four free throws in the final 1:34 and Strange hit the key front-end of a bonus situation to keep it a two-possession game, winning, 72-64.

Lee scored a game-high 24 points for the Bears who will move on to face second-seeded Sacramento State, who defeated Montana State in the day's earlier action.

Notes: Lauck moved to within 11 points of 1,000 for her career ... Leah Szabla had 10 rebounds Wednesday, marking a new career high ... Emily Evers recorded a blocked shot to move into a tie for fifth-place all-time at UND (Sheri Kleinsasser) ... The last time UND had eight or more three-pointers in a game came last season in a Jan. 25 win at Northern Arizona (10-for-19) ... Wednesday's loss marked UND's first loss all-time in the Big Sky Tournament (2-1).