The showdown the UND women's basketball team expected Saturday at Utah Valley never materialized. Utah Valley's overtime loss at Texas-Pan American last week wrapped up the Great West Conference regular-season title for UND.
Regardless, UND still has two goals to achieve as the Sioux close out the regular season in Orem, Utah, and next week at the league tournament.
"Our goal, from the beginning of the year, was to become the first (UND) Division I women's basketball team to win 20 games," Sioux coach Gene Roebuck said. "We have a chance to do that. Our second goal was to win the (regular-season) conference title; we did that. And our third goal is to win the conference postseason tournament.
"So we still have two goals to achieve."
UND will take an 8-1 league record to Utah Valley. The Sioux are 18-10 overall, so they'll need to win at UVC and one or two games in the postseason tournament to hit 20 wins.
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But there is an unspoken goal as well.
UND may be close to playing beyond the Great West Conference tournament. The Women's Basketball Invitational is a possibility for the Sioux, if they win the Great West tournament. If the Sioux don't win the title, a 20-win season still could push the Sioux into the 16-team tournament, won last season by Alabama-Birmingham.
UND also has two quality nonconference wins as well, against Duquense and Northern Iowa.
So, there is quite a bit on the line in the last week of the season.
UND swept the Texas schools in the Great West last week. But UND's play wasn't sharp, a concern to Roebuck.
"We weren't playing like we were before we left on the trip," Roebuck said. "We've got to get back to playing good basketball. "We didn't play our best basketball. We had a nine-day layoff and that didn't help us."
UND struggled over the Christmas break. Since, however, the Sioux have won 11 of their last 12 games. Their lone loss was at home against Utah Valley in the Great West opener.
"We know we're playing a good team," Roebuck said of UVU. "We're playing a team that wants to send us a message to us that they can beat us two times in a row.
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"I'm hoping our players can step on the floor and return the favor on their home court."
Nelson reports on sports. Reach him at (701) 780-1268; (800) 477-6572, ext. 268; or send e-mail to wnelson@gfherald.com .
