Belief the Key to NDSU Women’s Basketball’s 5-1 Start to the Season

Most wins in non-conference since 2007

FARGO, N.D. — When talking about the start North Dakota State women’s basketball has had this season, you’ll need to use the flame emoji. The Bison are off to a 5-1 start, tied for the most wins in the non conference since 2007.

It’s earned them the 19th ranking in the mid-major top 25 for the third consecutive week after entering the rankings for the first time ever earlier this month.

In their last win, NDSU earned its first victory over a power five opponent in Kansas since beating Minnesota back in 2006.

What has turned this program around in year two under head coach Jory Collins? Belief.

“They’re all coming together with a certain purpose and wanting to build our program and improve,” Collins said. “They all have that goal in mind. Our talent level is really good or at least improved depth wise. We have more players that are more capable of things and play off each other well.”

“When we get down, we know the game is not over. I think that was the issue in the past few years,” guard Heaven Hamling said. “They’d get down and wouldn’t always have the energy coming off the bench and wouldn’t always have the right mindset. This year we have people coming in who don’t really care. They’re coming in and saying I’m bringing the juice.”

“Just confident. We’ve trained for a long time,” guard Ryan Cobbins said. “We’ve been here since June practicing really hard and just seeing our results show for all the hours we put in. It’s super exciting.”

The Bison tip off conference play this weekend at Western Illinois.