After losing 55-42 on Thursday evening to North Texas, the women’s basketball team’s overtime win 68-65 on Saturday evening against University of Louisiana-Monroe, a team with a better record than theirs, was a good way for the team to finish up their weekend of away games.

University of North Texas (12-13, 7-6 SBC) had a game shooting percentage of 37.3 percent compared to University of Denver’s (10-15, 5-9 SBC) overall percentage of 30.2. In addition to being out-rebounded 49-32 by North Texas, DU had only seven second chance points compared to the Mean Green’s 14. Denver took 24 three point shots and only made five of them, whereas North Texas only have five total attempts at three’s and made two.

“We didn’t shoot well Thursday and we gave up too many offensive boards that led to second chance points for North Texas,” said head coach Pam Tanner of the reasons the team lost to North Texas.

At halftime, North Texas led 28-21, but the Pioneers battled back several times repeatedly getting within two and three points of the Mean Green. The score was tied three times and there were two lead changes, but the Mean Green had the biggest lead of the game in the second half when they were up 16 points. Junior forward Nnenna Akotaobi recorded a game-high 18 points and was the only DU player to score in the double digits. Senior forward Alisha Godette had 10 rebounds and senior Sara Benham had three of Denver’s four blocks.

The Pioneers defeated the ULM Warhawks 68-65 in overtime with much help from senior guard Brooke Meyer, who scored eight points in overtime, two of which were three point shots. This win is also significant for the Pioneers because they lost to ULM earlier in the season, 61-70 at home.

After University of Denver broke off on a 5-0 run, University of Louisiana-Monroe (16-9, 9-5 SBC) managed to fight back and tie the game at 52-52 in the last eight seconds, sending the game into overtime.

“The difference against Monroe was we shot better, hitting big shots and free throws at critical points,” said Tanner of how they played differently on Saturday. “We made some big defensive stops to secure the win.”

There were several key contributors to Saturday’s game against ULM. Godette had a game-high 19 points, five of which were in overtime play. Godette also led the Pioneers with seven rebounds, while Meyer had 12 points and Benham had 10.

As the Sun Belt Conference tournament approaches in early March, Denver will need to win all four of their final games in order to have a .500 record for the season and a better seed for the tournament. They have two home and away games left and each opponent is in the SBC.

“The Sun Belt race is more wide open than it ever has been,” said Tanner of Denver’s chance of beating the rest of their conference competitors. “Middle Tennessee has not played at altitude in the last three years so we will hopefully have an advantage.”

Denver is home this Thursday against Middle Tennessee in Magness Arena at 5 p.m. and again on Sunday against University of New Orleans at 1 p.m.