LARAMIE, Wyo. — The UND women’s basketball team went into Christmas break by committing a season-high 29 turnovers in a 73-41 loss at Wyoming on Saturday afternoon.

The Fighting Hawks, who were outscored 17-3 in the fourth quarter, dropped to 5-8 overall with two Division I wins.

UND ranks last in the Summit League in turnovers at 17.7 per game. The team is also last in the Summit in assists with 314.

Wyoming, which improved to 6-6, also beat South Dakota by 34 earlier this season.

UND was led by Grafton native Walker Demers, who finished with 13 points. No other Hawk ended with more than six points.

Grand Forks freshman point guard Jocelyn Schiller and sophomore Nevaeh Ferrara Horne both added six points.

Coming off a season-high 25 points against Mayville State, Kiera Pemberton was held to four points on just 2-for-3 shooting against Wyoming. She had six turnovers.

Pemberton, a sophomore from Langley, B.C., had scored in double figures in every other UND game this season.

The Hawks trailed by five after the first quarter and 13 at halftime.

UND cut the lead as close as 10 in the third quarter but trailed by 18 by the end of the frame.

UND was just 2-for-13 from 3-point range with Demers 0-for-4 and reserve Sydney Piekny 1-for-5.

Wyoming committed just 10 turnovers and had 17 assists. Three players finished in double figures, led by Tess Barnes with 16 points.

UND only shot four free throws — all by Demers, who was 3-for-4.

UND starts the post-Christmas schedule on the road, at Omaha on Jan. 2 and at Kansas City on Jan. 4.

The Hawks return home Jan. 9 against Oral Roberts and Jan. 11 against Denver.

Staff reports and local scoreboards from the Grand Forks Herald Sports desk.

Elder abuse is a growing concern throughout the country. It costs Americans billions of dollars and unfortunately encompasses a wide range of abuses, including physical, psychological and/or sexual harm, in addition to other concerns like neglect and taking advantage of seniors financially.

A new study conducted by personal finance website, WalletHub, recently listed the “States with the Best Elder-Abuse Protections”, and the Cowboy State was ranked in the top 15.

Wyoming was ranked 11th overall on the study.

WalletHub broke down the methodology for the study stating:

To identify where elderly Americans are best protected, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 16 key indicators of elder abuse protection in 3 overall categories. Our data set ranges from each state’s share of all elder abuse complaints to their laws concerning financial elder abuse.

A few of the key metrics illustrate why Wyoming scored so high (including the one that kept us from scoring even higher):

• Prevalence Rank – 19th
• Resources Rank – 5th
• Protection Rank –  47th

While overall Wyoming is doing considerably better than 80% of the country, there is definitely room for improvement. Considering some of the elderly horror stories that have made it to different news outlets around the state over the last couple of years, it’s nice to see us rising on this list.