March 4, 2025 • 11 mins
UND Women's Basketball Head Coach Mallory Bernhard looks back on the season and looks ahead to the Summit League tournament as the #5 seed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're back here at the five oh six Pub
downtown Grand Forks. I'm Paul Rossell along with Tim Hennessey.
This is hot talk and we continue on here. Chris
is running our controls as our executive producer at the
flag Ship Studios downtown Grand Forks. Time to switch gears
to women's basketball for University of North Dakota women's basketball
as they head to the Seven League Championships for a
(00:21):
Friday at noon tilt against that Royal Purple team that
has been a thorn in my side, Saint Thomas. Tommy's
a four or five matchup. Head coach Mallory Bernhard, everybody,
we appreciate her coming on end tonight, and you know what,
you sure certainly made it exciting because then I hear Jack,
he's a There was only two places you're gonna finish
(00:44):
in this at the end of the regular season on Saturday,
was either gonna be five as the five seed or
the eight. You couldn't be the six or the seven,
and thankfully you got a win. You had to claw
and scratch and whatever down the street after going out
to a big halftime lead. And if there's a lesson
(01:05):
in all of that, is that it's never over it
can You know, you always tell young people that, you know,
when if they start hanging their heads when they're training
by twenty they obviously haven't watched much basketball because teams
do it all the time, and Kansas City did. But
you had the final run, Well we.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Did, and we fortunately had Jossi Schiller on our roster.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, you did the year.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, she made some huge plays down the stretch. I mean,
I can think of a defensive rebound that she comes
out of nowhere and grabs loose ball. She comes out
of there and grabs she hits two huge free throws. Yeah,
she's she's someone that when the when the moment gets big,
she does not shy away.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah. And and the thing about it was is that
I was curious to see how your team came around
on Saturday and the response was awesome, especially they're open
opening twenty minutes because Thursday did not go the way
you would have intended it to go. And and there
just was a great fight in resiliency in your in
your ball club. You had to be a little bit
(02:02):
interested to see how they would respond after Thursday as well.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, we get the benefit of you know, seeing a
little bit of that on Friday, you know, when we
have practice and you know, typically those aren't the most
intense practices, but we certainly you know, had intensity, but
came to mental focus on Friday and just understanding, you know,
we didn't we didn't need to give them all the implications.
We did not have to give them the this and
(02:26):
that and what's going to happen and all that. We
just had to rev up the intensity and understand that
we got a way of going about things that we
had to handle the right way.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The the the thing I look at is, yes, Joss
Schiller Freshman of the Year in the Summon League. Everybody,
that's pretty cool. Yeah, uh yes, Kira Pemberton named the
All seven League second Team. That's awesome as well. And
Fatima Ibraheim was the defensive player of the Year. That's
so awesome. The emerging second year player out of Winnipeg.
(02:58):
It's been a we've talked about her last week. She
did foul out I think late in that one, and
of course that did Kira, Yeah, as did Kira. So
you know, that's been the maybe the biggest challenge for
some of these young players to kind of learn and
grow from about. You know, sometimes when you're beat, you
almost got to just wave the white flag a little
bit and play another day, because another three minutes on
(03:19):
the floor, it's probably better. Is that? Is that? Is
that part of the discussions when you talk a little
bit about trying to stay on the floor a little
bit longer for some of these talented players.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Sure, I mean some of it is. You know, they're
going to a lot offensive fouls if I'm being honest.
You know, a team I think had two in that game.
Kira had at least one in that game as well,
And so some of it is we gotta we gotta
understand maybe that part of it, but those are a
little bit more controllable. Fatima, unfortunately, you know, loves to
block shots. Sure it's it's hard to argue that when
she's garnering.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, exactly, But sadly that can also get you in
fouol trouble if you get yourself out of position. So yeah,
I mean there's certainly a lot that we're talking about
when it comes to position and being smart and all
of that. But we've talked about this before, Paul, I mean,
you have you have one of two ways of looking
at it. When someone gets in foul trouble. You can
either sit them yourself and then you're just taking them
(04:12):
out of the game right by your own volition. Otherwise
you can risk it a little bit and they may
not pick up that foul and then you do get
the benefit of playing them. And so we certainly put
them out there, we let them go, and unfortunately, you know,
maybe that's that's something I need to look a little
bit more closely. When there was as many foul calls
in that game as there was, maybe need to be
(04:33):
a little bit more conservative, But the game was getting
away from us, it felt like a little bit, and
so you want to have those players on the floor
so that doesn't completely fall away.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Does that take some of the aggressiveness away from those players?
When I mean you see it all the time you
watch games on TV, whatever, all four falls and they
pull them out. But if you leave them on, does
it take away some of their aggressiveness?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Not a time. I mean it should a little bit.
But look, here is such a downhill player that you know,
she's got to play her game, and so she does
a pretty good job of just staying locked in to
what it is. Her game is still trying, Yeah, still
trying to play the way she plays, but maybe there
needs to be a little bit more of that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You have to remind her of that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, I'll definitely talk about it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
The Saint Thomas meeting in Grand Forks a very tight affair. Uh.
They snuck away a little bit in the meeting in
Saint Paul at Schnecker Arena. You know, I just feel
like they have it's kind of like their men's team
a little bit, some veterans that have been through it
and are really prideful, and you know, like like Hill
(05:37):
always seems to make a bucket when they need it,
and it's frustrating and when you're cheering for the team
opposite of them, and but she just always has that neck.
It's a credit to her. You have your hands full
on Friday afternoon, don't you.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We do. I mean they have two really really talented
guards and as you said, Jade Hill and Amberscalia, I
mean both thousand point scores then a thousand point scorer
inside the post, and so yeah, they I mean they
are definitely a team that has, you know, a plethora
of options and they go to them quite frequently, and
like you said, yeah, they're just kids that have played
(06:11):
for a long time. I mean, Jade Hill's been starting
her entire career and Bascalia is right there with their
Joe Langban's you know, far in the mix as well.
So kids that have a lot of experience and when
big moments show up, they've been in them. They have
confidence that they can knock down those shots. So it's
going to be a big game for us in terms of,
you know, executing our game plan, staying really locked in
for forty minutes. We felt like we've had some games
(06:32):
where first half we've been really good defensively, and then
out of the half, you know, it's like we're focusing
so much on maybe one side of the ball that
defensively we seem to be backsliding a little bit. And
so we're really challenging our team this week and maybe
you know, locking in for the entirety of practice and
maybe throwing a couple extra things that them just so
that they have to stay mentally engaged and just change
(06:54):
some things up and stay focused.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I hear you talk a lot about defense. Defense, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Focus mostly on our team's defense so yes.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
I noticed that that that seems to be the focus
for Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Absolutely, I was just going to say that, Uh, you know,
I guess all put on my true media hat.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Here.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
How's Walker doing? Walker de Merge? I know it's been
a bit of a run, you felt Saturday even that, Hey,
now that we know that we're a Friday game, there's hope.
Is there's still hope? I guess is that's the question?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean I think there's still hope. It's it's
you know, we don't have her back yet in practice
full or anything like that. Yeah, but we're we're still
hoping that that could be the case.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It's just, you know, even it would be a little
boost I think just to see her walk out under
the floor for her teammates, because it's amazing for a
player who is from Grafton obviously has pride in North Dakota,
but went to South Dakota originally. She she emerged as
a leader coming into the into the fall season. Just
I think the teammates look to her a little bit,
and she's been good on the bench, no doubt. I've
(07:56):
looked at her body language. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Absolutely, she has a leader for our team, and she
just has such a good energy about her and so, yeah,
I mean on the floor obviously is where we'd like
to have her. On the bench though she is still
bringing a lot of that and to the credit of Fatima,
I thank goodness. You know, she's she's really, you know,
stepped up in a major way. And you know, we've
kind of had to ask Kaya to step up and
(08:19):
play a little bit of that five spot and she's,
you know, she's still kind of learning and getting comfortable
with it. But yeah, we we certainly hope that we
can get walk her back for any amount of time, truthfully,
but yeah, regardless, she's going to be a leader for us.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Would you do that, Mallard? Would your player ten minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
If we can get her absolutely way, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, We're gonna knock on whatever would we can to
get to get maybe a good bill of health or
an improvement so that she'd be an opportunity to maybe
step on the floor for the Fighting Hawks on on
Friday afternoon, and let's make our stay in Sioux Falls
as long as possible for all of us. It could
be a wild ride if we could good luck on Friday,
(09:00):
and we appreciate dropping by and getting us ready for
the week ahead. Thanks for this. Thanks Mellory Bernhard, you
and DIE women's basketball head coach joining us here to
close out Hawk Talk tonight. A couple of things that
we need to mention before we go here, as far
as you and D athletics this coming week here you
indie hockey on Friday night, we should mention tim that
it's a six thirty six game. Now six thirty six games.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Probably will be because we would be the first game
they're putting on, so they won't slight us. Yeah, because
usually they have something else passball or whatever on sure
they go, wow, wait a minute, they're not quite done yet,
so you gotta put that off. So I think that
will start on time.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It's at the usual six oh seven on Saturday night.
We should mention that if you and Die men's and
women's basketball on Friday, the women will go eleven thirty
three game twelve o'clock noon for the tip against Saint
Thomas in that quarterfinal a four to five matchup. It's
a three to six matchup in the evening men's quarterfinal
between North Dakota and South Dakotas State that's approximately an
(10:01):
eight point thirty in the evening. We should be on
the air at about eight o'clock on Friday night. If
both teams were to win, and that's what we want,
the women would play again on Saturday at twelve noon
yet again, and the men would play. It would probably
be closer to seven thirty ish probably the first game.
It would be in the second one, but they go early,
(10:22):
I think. No, I'm sorry, it would be nine to
thirty ish on because they go at seven for the
first one, and it'll be closer to nine thirty on
Saturday night. Yes, I'm sorry on that one. It's actually
nine thirty if they win, So knock on wood. We
hope to have a little run of success in Sioux
Falls at the seventh League basketball Championship. So make sure
you follow Fighting Hawks dot com for all your information
(10:44):
throughout the weekend ahead. For Tim Hennessy, I'm Paul Rolson
for Chrissa back at the controls, for our guests, for
our fans here joining us at the five oh six Pub,
and to everyone at the five oh six Pub making
us feel so welcome. We can't wait to come back
next week for the penultimate show. Until then, have a
great night, and a great weekend. Go Fighting Hocks on
the Fighting Hocks Radio Network.
And we're back here at the five oh six Pub
downtown Grand Forks. I'm Paul Rossell along with Tim Hennessey.
This is hot talk and we continue on here. Chris
is running our controls as our executive producer at the
flag Ship Studios downtown Grand Forks. Time to switch gears
to women's basketball for University of North Dakota women's basketball
as they head to the Seven League Championships for a
(00:21):
Friday at noon tilt against that Royal Purple team that
has been a thorn in my side, Saint Thomas. Tommy's
a four or five matchup. Head coach Mallory Bernhard, everybody,
we appreciate her coming on end tonight, and you know what,
you sure certainly made it exciting because then I hear Jack,
he's a There was only two places you're gonna finish
(00:44):
in this at the end of the regular season on Saturday,
was either gonna be five as the five seed or
the eight. You couldn't be the six or the seven,
and thankfully you got a win. You had to claw
and scratch and whatever down the street after going out
to a big halftime lead. And if there's a lesson
(01:05):
in all of that, is that it's never over it
can You know, you always tell young people that, you know,
when if they start hanging their heads when they're training
by twenty they obviously haven't watched much basketball because teams
do it all the time, and Kansas City did. But
you had the final run, Well we.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Did, and we fortunately had Jossi Schiller on our roster.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, you did the year.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, she made some huge plays down the stretch. I mean,
I can think of a defensive rebound that she comes
out of nowhere and grabs loose ball. She comes out
of there and grabs she hits two huge free throws. Yeah,
she's she's someone that when the when the moment gets big,
she does not shy away.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah. And and the thing about it was is that
I was curious to see how your team came around
on Saturday and the response was awesome, especially they're open
opening twenty minutes because Thursday did not go the way
you would have intended it to go. And and there
just was a great fight in resiliency in your in
your ball club. You had to be a little bit
(02:02):
interested to see how they would respond after Thursday as well.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, we get the benefit of you know, seeing a
little bit of that on Friday, you know, when we
have practice and you know, typically those aren't the most
intense practices, but we certainly you know, had intensity, but
came to mental focus on Friday and just understanding, you know,
we didn't we didn't need to give them all the implications.
We did not have to give them the this and
(02:26):
that and what's going to happen and all that. We
just had to rev up the intensity and understand that
we got a way of going about things that we
had to handle the right way.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The the the thing I look at is, yes, Joss
Schiller Freshman of the Year in the Summon League. Everybody,
that's pretty cool. Yeah, uh yes, Kira Pemberton named the
All seven League second Team. That's awesome as well. And
Fatima Ibraheim was the defensive player of the Year. That's
so awesome. The emerging second year player out of Winnipeg.
(02:58):
It's been a we've talked about her last week. She
did foul out I think late in that one, and
of course that did Kira, Yeah, as did Kira. So
you know, that's been the maybe the biggest challenge for
some of these young players to kind of learn and
grow from about. You know, sometimes when you're beat, you
almost got to just wave the white flag a little
bit and play another day, because another three minutes on
(03:19):
the floor, it's probably better. Is that? Is that? Is
that part of the discussions when you talk a little
bit about trying to stay on the floor a little
bit longer for some of these talented players.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Sure, I mean some of it is. You know, they're
going to a lot offensive fouls if I'm being honest.
You know, a team I think had two in that game.
Kira had at least one in that game as well,
And so some of it is we gotta we gotta
understand maybe that part of it, but those are a
little bit more controllable. Fatima, unfortunately, you know, loves to
block shots. Sure it's it's hard to argue that when
she's garnering.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, exactly, But sadly that can also get you in
fouol trouble if you get yourself out of position. So yeah,
I mean there's certainly a lot that we're talking about
when it comes to position and being smart and all
of that. But we've talked about this before, Paul, I mean,
you have you have one of two ways of looking
at it. When someone gets in foul trouble. You can
either sit them yourself and then you're just taking them
(04:12):
out of the game right by your own volition. Otherwise
you can risk it a little bit and they may
not pick up that foul and then you do get
the benefit of playing them. And so we certainly put
them out there, we let them go, and unfortunately, you know,
maybe that's that's something I need to look a little
bit more closely. When there was as many foul calls
in that game as there was, maybe need to be
(04:33):
a little bit more conservative, But the game was getting
away from us, it felt like a little bit, and
so you want to have those players on the floor
so that doesn't completely fall away.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Does that take some of the aggressiveness away from those players?
When I mean you see it all the time you
watch games on TV, whatever, all four falls and they
pull them out. But if you leave them on, does
it take away some of their aggressiveness?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Not a time. I mean it should a little bit.
But look, here is such a downhill player that you know,
she's got to play her game, and so she does
a pretty good job of just staying locked in to
what it is. Her game is still trying, Yeah, still
trying to play the way she plays, but maybe there
needs to be a little bit more of that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You have to remind her of that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, I'll definitely talk about it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
The Saint Thomas meeting in Grand Forks a very tight affair. Uh.
They snuck away a little bit in the meeting in
Saint Paul at Schnecker Arena. You know, I just feel
like they have it's kind of like their men's team
a little bit, some veterans that have been through it
and are really prideful, and you know, like like Hill
(05:37):
always seems to make a bucket when they need it,
and it's frustrating and when you're cheering for the team
opposite of them, and but she just always has that neck.
It's a credit to her. You have your hands full
on Friday afternoon, don't you.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We do. I mean they have two really really talented
guards and as you said, Jade Hill and Amberscalia, I
mean both thousand point scores then a thousand point scorer
inside the post, and so yeah, they I mean they
are definitely a team that has, you know, a plethora
of options and they go to them quite frequently, and
like you said, yeah, they're just kids that have played
(06:11):
for a long time. I mean, Jade Hill's been starting
her entire career and Bascalia is right there with their
Joe Langban's you know, far in the mix as well.
So kids that have a lot of experience and when
big moments show up, they've been in them. They have
confidence that they can knock down those shots. So it's
going to be a big game for us in terms of,
you know, executing our game plan, staying really locked in
for forty minutes. We felt like we've had some games
(06:32):
where first half we've been really good defensively, and then
out of the half, you know, it's like we're focusing
so much on maybe one side of the ball that
defensively we seem to be backsliding a little bit. And
so we're really challenging our team this week and maybe
you know, locking in for the entirety of practice and
maybe throwing a couple extra things that them just so
that they have to stay mentally engaged and just change
(06:54):
some things up and stay focused.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I hear you talk a lot about defense. Defense, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Focus mostly on our team's defense so yes.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
I noticed that that that seems to be the focus
for Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Absolutely, I was just going to say that, Uh, you know,
I guess all put on my true media hat.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Here.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
How's Walker doing? Walker de Merge? I know it's been
a bit of a run, you felt Saturday even that, Hey,
now that we know that we're a Friday game, there's hope.
Is there's still hope? I guess is that's the question?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean I think there's still hope. It's it's
you know, we don't have her back yet in practice
full or anything like that. Yeah, but we're we're still
hoping that that could be the case.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It's just, you know, even it would be a little
boost I think just to see her walk out under
the floor for her teammates, because it's amazing for a
player who is from Grafton obviously has pride in North Dakota,
but went to South Dakota originally. She she emerged as
a leader coming into the into the fall season. Just
I think the teammates look to her a little bit,
and she's been good on the bench, no doubt. I've
(07:56):
looked at her body language. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Absolutely, she has a leader for our team, and she
just has such a good energy about her and so, yeah,
I mean on the floor obviously is where we'd like
to have her. On the bench though she is still
bringing a lot of that and to the credit of Fatima,
I thank goodness. You know, she's she's really, you know,
stepped up in a major way. And you know, we've
kind of had to ask Kaya to step up and
(08:19):
play a little bit of that five spot and she's,
you know, she's still kind of learning and getting comfortable
with it. But yeah, we we certainly hope that we
can get walk her back for any amount of time, truthfully,
but yeah, regardless, she's going to be a leader for us.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Would you do that, Mallard? Would your player ten minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
If we can get her absolutely way, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, We're gonna knock on whatever would we can to
get to get maybe a good bill of health or
an improvement so that she'd be an opportunity to maybe
step on the floor for the Fighting Hawks on on
Friday afternoon, and let's make our stay in Sioux Falls
as long as possible for all of us. It could
be a wild ride if we could good luck on Friday,
(09:00):
and we appreciate dropping by and getting us ready for
the week ahead. Thanks for this. Thanks Mellory Bernhard, you
and DIE women's basketball head coach joining us here to
close out Hawk Talk tonight. A couple of things that
we need to mention before we go here, as far
as you and D athletics this coming week here you
indie hockey on Friday night, we should mention tim that
it's a six thirty six game. Now six thirty six games.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Probably will be because we would be the first game
they're putting on, so they won't slight us. Yeah, because
usually they have something else passball or whatever on sure
they go, wow, wait a minute, they're not quite done yet,
so you gotta put that off. So I think that
will start on time.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It's at the usual six oh seven on Saturday night.
We should mention that if you and Die men's and
women's basketball on Friday, the women will go eleven thirty
three game twelve o'clock noon for the tip against Saint
Thomas in that quarterfinal a four to five matchup. It's
a three to six matchup in the evening men's quarterfinal
between North Dakota and South Dakotas State that's approximately an
(10:01):
eight point thirty in the evening. We should be on
the air at about eight o'clock on Friday night. If
both teams were to win, and that's what we want,
the women would play again on Saturday at twelve noon
yet again, and the men would play. It would probably
be closer to seven thirty ish probably the first game.
It would be in the second one, but they go early,
(10:22):
I think. No, I'm sorry, it would be nine to
thirty ish on because they go at seven for the
first one, and it'll be closer to nine thirty on
Saturday night. Yes, I'm sorry on that one. It's actually
nine thirty if they win, So knock on wood. We
hope to have a little run of success in Sioux
Falls at the seventh League basketball Championship. So make sure
you follow Fighting Hawks dot com for all your information
(10:44):
throughout the weekend ahead. For Tim Hennessy, I'm Paul Rolson
for Chrissa back at the controls, for our guests, for
our fans here joining us at the five oh six Pub,
and to everyone at the five oh six Pub making
us feel so welcome. We can't wait to come back
next week for the penultimate show. Until then, have a
great night, and a great weekend. Go Fighting Hocks on
the Fighting Hocks Radio Network.
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