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5 takeaways from UND's 81-68 loss Minnesota Crookston
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- 5 takeaways from UND's 81-68 loss Minnesota Crookston
Nov. 3—GRAND FORKS — UND opened the 2026-27 season with an 81-68 defeat to Minnesota Crookston, its first loss to the Golden Eagles in program history.
Here are five takeaways from Monday's upset at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
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It became clear quite quickly that it wasn't UND's day from 3-point range.
The Hawks shot 1-for-17 from beyond the arc in the first half. They improved slightly in the second half, shooting 4-for-16, but it couldn't erase the early struggles.
Unsurprisingly, junior guard Sydney Piekny accounted for most of UND's triples. She shot 3-for-5 from deep.
"I liked the looks, we just couldn't knock any down," head coach Dennis Hutter said. "There were a couple that might have been a little rough in the first half, and we talked to some of the kids about that. I felt like they were searching for the game a little bit instead of letting the game come to them, which we talked about in one of the timeouts."
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Senior Jayda Maves and junior Ciona Wells, both guards who transferred in from the Division II level, shot a combined 3-for-27 from the field and 0-for-12 from 3-point range.
Maves shot 42.8% from deep at Western Colorado last season, while Wells shot 31.1% from the field and 31% from beyond the arc at Western Oregon.
"I would say probably just a bad shooting day," sophomore guard London Harris said of the 3-point struggles. "I think all of us have to realize that once the 3s aren't falling — I mean, we're a very aggressive team. We do get downhill, we do post up and make hits and everything. I just think that we need to realize early in the game that if we're going 1-for-17, we've definitely got to get it inside, or we've got to attack it from the inside."
UND's starting lineup featured two returners — Piekny and Harris — and three transfers.
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Several freshmen also logged solid minutes off the bench: Maggie Fricke, Jayden Sonnenberg and Mia Jacobson each played for at least five minutes.
Sonnenberg led the way with 14 minutes.
The trio didn't feature heavily into the offensive output, finishing with a combined seven field-goal attempts.
Hutter didn't attribute Monday's struggles to a lack of chemistry, instead pointing to the jump in competition for many of the players.
"They've practiced a lot together," Hutter said, "so I just think you have some kids that are new to this level of basketball. You've got three freshmen that you put in there, and I think they kind of got smacked in the face a little bit with like, whoa, this is pretty physical and this is pretty fast, and that's all part of it. So I anticipated that that was going to happen tonight. There are three kids that probably are going to see the floor, and I think every time they step out there, it'll get a little easier and a little easier as they do it more.
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"You've got that, you've got new kids that are coming in that played at different schools, and just realizing that the intensity here is a little bit different. But I don't think the chemistry was really all that bad tonight, I just think some kids just learned that this is a different level, and that you have to show up physically and mentally if you want to have a chance to compete every night."
Much of the offseason excitement — the new faces, the returning players back for another shot, Hutter with a full offseason to prepare — curdled on Monday night.
So how does UND ensure that the entire season doesn't sour after just one game?
"It's all about the process, in my opinion," Hutter said. "We have to stay the course. It's something we talked about in the locker room, when we went in there. If you're going to be results-driven, it's going to be really hard. You've got to be process-driven, and sometimes the process is hard tomorrow and Wednesday after a game like today. But to me, you respect the process by not skipping a step. You do every part of it, whatever that might be. That's kind of what we'll talk about. Yeah, I mean, everybody around them is going to talk about the fact that they lost the game. But like we said in there, it's one thing to say you lost it, but more importantly for me, I think we need to look at how we lost it, so obviously we can try to avoid that moving forward."
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Though the offense clearly did not have a good day, Hutter put an emphasis on defensive issues after the game.
Minnesota Crookston sophomore Anna Westby took full advantage of UND's defensive lapses. She scored 29 points despite going 1-for-8 from 3-point range.
Westby scored 12 points in the fourth quarter alone, effectively icing the win for the Golden Eagles.
"I think we got loose," Hutter said. "We got bad closeouts, which allowed her to attack the rim a little bit. I felt defensively in the fourth quarter, we scrambled a little bit, and then there were times that we over-scrambled and she'd put it on the floor, and everybody kind of just ran away from her, and so that wasn't a good situation either. Don't get me wrong, she's a good player and had a really good night. But I just felt like we again got loose, closing out, not knowing personnel very well, just little things like that. There's a fine line between winning and losing, and we're trying to figure that out."
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It's hard to feel good about much after a loss to a Division II opponent, but there were a few bright spots despite the loss.
For one, Harris showed some of her offseason growth. She scored a team-high 17 points and led the Hawks with nine rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive glass.
Aliyah Green also looked solid in her UND debut. The sophomore forward who transferred in from Butler Community College scored 10 points, adding seven rebounds, three steals and an assist.
Plus, the turnover struggles that plagued the Hawks last season were largely absent in Monday's loss. They committed 12 turnovers to Minnesota Crookston's 23.
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"Offensively, I thought we made some strides in the second half," Hutter said. "We kind of loosened them up and let them play a little bit more. Saw some kids do some things, but we shot it very poorly. We got great looks, we took 71 shots, only turned it over 12 times. I mean, that's something that's been really good for us this year, taking care of the ball really well in practice, and those 71 shots, we missed a lot around the rim."
