GRAND FORKS — Hitting the century mark for the UND women's basketball team is typically reserved for non-conference games early in the season against sub-Division I competition.
This time, it came against a team the Fighting Hawks were tied with for second place in the Summit League standings. And this time, UND hit triple digits with more than five and a half minutes to play and the opponent still in the hunt.
UND used 32-point third quarter and 27 points from Kacie Borowicz to beat Oral Roberts 108-100 on Thursday night in front of 1,371 at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
UND's 108 points were the most the program has ever scored against a Division I opponent.
"It's a track meet, back and forth," said Borowicz, who added 11 assists, six rebounds and four steals. "As soon as you see that ball go through the net, you have to focus on defense. We knew it was going to be a high-paced game. We just had to get a few more stops than them."
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UND is now tied for second place in the Summit standings with North Dakota State. The Hawks and the Bison are both 9-6 in league play.
"We knew it was going to be high-scoring but I wouldn't guess 208 points were scored tonight," UND coach Mallory Bernhard said. "You can't let up because they're a team that goes, goes, goes. We got a little stagnant the last six minutes of that game. There's a fine balance between wanting to take time and limit possessions but at the same time you want to stay aggressive."
UND ended with six players in double figures. After Borowicz, Claire Orth and Juliet Gordon each had 17 while Nakiyah Hurst had 13 points and Sammiyah Hoskin and Maggie Manson each had 11.
Hurst's 13 points came in 12 minutes of play, while Orth was limited due to foul trouble and scored her 17 in just 19 minutes of play.
After leading 51-49 at halftime, UND exploded in the third quarter hitting 66.7 percent of its shots and knocking down five 3-pointers.
The key spurt was a 9-0 run capped off by a Manson jumper for a 74-63 lead with 3:39 left in the third quarter.
"Fun, in the sense how much impact this game has in the standings," Bernhard said. "The fans were loud. There were times I'm screaming for something and no one can hear a thing. That's fun. That's what makes the Betty special."
Oral Roberts responded with a quick 7-0 run of its own to cut the lead to five but UND hit three 3-pointers before the end of the third quarter. Borowicz hit a triple with a hand in her face late in a shot clock, then Gordon knocked down a deep 3-pointer with a sagging defender and lastly Deja Davis, in just four minutes of play overall, drilled a corner 3-pointer cold off the bench to give the Hawks an 83-71 advantage.
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Both teams dealt with foul trouble. UND entered the fourth quarter with both Orth and Gordon playing with four fouls. For ORU, starters Ruthie Udoumoh and Tirzah Moore both fouled out of the game.
The Golden Eagles were led by 32 points from Hannah Cooper.
"We were sharing the ball super well, and it was super fun to have the Betty get into it," Orth said. "We knew coming in, that was the game it was going to be. We thought maybe we could beat them at their own game, and we were successful in doing that."
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