GRAND FORKS, N.D.--Senior forward Emmanuel Little scored a career-high 33 points and senior guard Ervin Youmans added 25 to help the Fighting Sioux erase an 11-point halftime deficit and defeat Mayville State 100-88 tonight at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
The win, UND's eighth in a row, improves the Sioux record to 8-3 with one game remaining before the Christmas break.
Twenty-one of Little's points came in the second half when a pair of UND runs helped the Sioux rally from a 49-38 halftime deficit.
Mayville State was able to grab that halftime lead on the strength of a 19-5 run to close out the period. Comets' senior guard Tremel Gilot scored 16 first-half points as UND struggled to find an answer for his outside shooting and inside moves.
But UND came out of the locker room hitting on all cylinders, using a 13-2 run to climb back into the game. Little, who led all players with 12 rebounds, turned offensive rebounds into put-backs on back-to-back possessions to cut the deficit to five points before the half was three minutes old.
Then Youmans connected on a three-pointer and Little knocked down a pair of free throws to tie the game at 51-51 with just over 16 minutes remaining.
Consecutive baskets by Mayville State's Tyler Sundby put the Comets back on top by four, but UND's Travis Bledsoe (So., Minneapolis, Minn.) answered with a three-pointer and Little hit two more free throws to give the Sioux their first lead of the half.
Sundby quickly countered with a three-pointer of his own to make it 58-56 Mayville State with 13:24 left, but that would be the last lead of the night for the Comets.
The Sioux put together a 15-4 run over the next seven minutes, capped off by a Youmans three-pointer from the left corner to put UND ahead 79-66 with six and a half minutes left on the clock.
Mayville State would draw no closer than within six points the rest of the way, with the Sioux going 12-for-15 from the free throw line in the final four minutes. UND held the Comets to just 38.7 percent from the field in the second half after Mayville State had hit on 61 percent in the first half.
Little's career night included a 12-for-21 performance from the floor and a 9-for-12 showing at the line. He also grabbed eight offensive rebounds among his game-high 12 boards.
Youmans, who entered the game ranked second in the NCC in field goal percentage, connected on 8-of-11 from the floor, including 4-of-5 three-pointers. He also added four assists.
Junior guard Darius Joseph (Tacoma, Wash.) dished out a UND season-high eight assists and turned the ball over just twice, while scoring 12 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Bledsoe added 13 points off the bench.
Gilot led the Comets with 29 points and Sundby added 21.
UND travels to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday to face Upper Iowa in the final game before the Christmas break.
Notes: Little's 33 points were the most by a Sioux player since former All-American Jerome Beasley notched 34 in a 79-78 loss at South Dakota on Jan. 2, 2003. His double-double was UND's first of the season and his eighth in 39 games as a Sioux ... UND's last 100-point game came on Nov. 24, 2003 in a 113-59 win over Minnesota-Morris at Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Sioux went 98 games between 100-point outings, their longest drought since going 122 games without scoring 100 from 1977 to 1981 ... Joseph has handed out at least seven assists in three of his last four games.
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