DENVER – Denver used a 22-point fourth quarter to boost the host-Pioneers to an 87-66 victory over North Dakota on Saturday evening in Denver.
 
Lauren Loven scored a game-high 24 points on a 6-for-8 night from distance to lead the Pioneers (10-7, 3-1 Summit League) as four Denver players crossed the 10-point plateau in the win.
 
A trio of Fighting Hawks (7-9, 2-1 Summit League) scored in double figures, led by Jill Morton's 15 points. The senior also led the visitors with seven rebounds, marking her third straight game with seven boards. Morton has now scored at least 10 points in six of her last seven, including leading UND with 23 points in Thursday's win over Oral Roberts. Lexi Klabo and Alaina Jarnot each tallied 13 points for UND, with Klabo also registering five rebounds and Jarnot adding a team-high four assists.
 
"We talked about taking away the three-point shot and we did that early on but they were able to start knocking it down and we never really recovered," UND head coach Travis Brewster said. "We were a bit slow on our rotations there in the second half and we missed too many buckets right underneath the hoop and you can't guard a team from the free throw line so we have to do a better job of being on the help side on defense and doing what we have to do."

North Dakota won the battle on the boards, 36-35, but it was Denver who finished with a better shooting percentage by connecting at a 48.2% clip to UND's 38.3%. The Pioneers also had a strong night from beyond-the-arc, hitting 13-of-22 (.591) attempts while the Hawks sank four of their eight tries.
 
 After UND jumped out to a 9-3 start to the game, Denver cranked up the defense by holding the Hawks scoreless for the next 6:02 to turn the six-point deficit into a 17-9 advantage with just over a minute remaining in the opening quarter. The visitors responded with an 8-0 spurt as Morton and Jarnot each scored a tetrad of points, but Denver hit a shot at the buzzer to hold a 19-17 lead after 10 minutes of action.
 
Denver started to heat up from distance in the second frame, hitting five triples in the stanza to outscore the Hawks, 28-20, in the quarter to carry a 47-37 lead into the halftime break.
 
Klabo and Jarnot helped UND cut the deficit down to single digits, 51-42, early in the third quarter, but the Pioneers answered back to push the lead back up to 14 at the midway portion of the frame. Melissa Dailey hit a three and Morton followed with back-to-back buckets to once again trim the DU advantage down to nine, 61-52, but the hosts would get the last laugh with nine straight points to end the third and start the final period to build an 18-point lead. The nine-point deficit was as close as UND would get for the remainder of the game as Denver held on for the 87-66 victory.
 
North Dakota returns home on Wednesday evening with a showdown against former NCC rival Omaha at 7 p.m. from the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.