WICHITA, Kan. --- The University of North Dakota men's basketball team showed up in front 10,502 fans in a sold-out Charles Koch Arena in WIchita, Kan., and sent the fans home knowing they were in a battle as Wichita State pulled away in the final minute for a 66-51 win.
Senior Daniel Harkins (Portage, Wis.) led the Sioux with 16 points while senior O.J. Harrison (Danville, Ill.) also had double-digit points with 12. The Sioux fall to 6-5 on the year while Wichita State improves to 6-5.
The Sioux from the initial jump-ball showed a lot more energy and consistency on the defensive end in the back-half of the two game road trip against the Shockers forcing a travel on their first possession and not allowing a field goal until over two minutes into the game.
“I really think they bounced back with a lot of heart and a lot of pride against a team in the Missouri Valley (conference) and a very good team,” head coach Brian Jones said. “We got better tonight. That was a thing we really stressed to our guys. The things we struggled with against Green Bay we talked about and our guys did a really nice job of tonight. Our guys played with a lot of pride and passion tonight which was kind of lacking Saturday afternoon.”
After a strong performance on the defensive end, the Sioux would still enter the locker room at the half-way mark trailing, 23-17, but knew they had missed out on some key opportunities.
Sioux deep threats Pat Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) and Harkins combined to go 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the first half.
“I thought so,” Jones said. “They were wide-open shots and they couldn't have got any more open then they were. Any time we got Pat, Dustin (Monsebroten), Daniel and O.J. (Harrison) getting shots like that we need them to be successful and they were just not going down. We came in at halftime and talked about that you have to shoot those shots. Maybe we get a couple more passes and ball reversals and you are going to get that same shot, so we need to be able to shoot those shots and bury them to be successful as a team.”
The Sioux only shot 23.8 percent (5-for-21) from the field in the first stanza and 14.3 percent from three-point range (2-for-14).
The Sioux came out strong defensively with a steal by Darius Joseph (Tacoma, Wash.) helping a 4-0 run to start the second half and cut the lead to three. After a field goal by the Shockers, Harkins would hit his first three pointer of the game pulling the Sioux with in two, 25-23.
“We had a chance cutting the game to two (points) in the second half and we just couldn't make shots,” Jones said. “That is kind of the way the game went. They kind of went on a run and made some jump shots against our zone and we couldn't convert on the other end.”
That run started when Shocker Ramon Clemente started to impose himself on the boards which led to a couple easy offensive lay-ins and helped the Shockers go on a 16-5 run to spread the lead to 41-28 including an alley-oop dunk which got all WSU fans on their feet.
Clemente leads WSU with 9.9 rebounds-per-game coming into this game to also lead the Missouri Valley Conference.
“He is their energizer guy for them,” Jones said. “He's a blue collar, rebounding machine averaging almost ten a game and four offensive. We were able to get them to miss but he was able to get his hands on some balls and make some things happen on transition. When we are as small and light weight as we were we needed to play small because Derek (Benter) had gotten in foul trouble. He was able to take advantage of our lack in size.”
The Sioux continued to try to get within reach but the Shockers made their free throws and held on for the win. After starting the game 1-for-2 from the field in the first half, Harkins finished the game 6-for-18.
The Shockers had so far this season out rebounded all but two opponents with a plus 8.4 overall and outrebounded the Sioux tonight, but only by one.
The Sioux are now off over Christmas until returning to action as they will host Minnesota-Crookston on Dec. 30, and open new year's action against Minot State on Jan. 2, before hitting the road again to take on Texas A&M on Jan. 5.
“We have to get healthy,” Jones said. “We are hoping to be full strength when we get back. Tonight was the type of effort we need from our guys. The focus, preparation and just the belief and confidence in themselves and the program. We need to come back and take care of business. We got two home games coming and it is just another chance to lace them up in front of our home crowd.”
-GO SIOUX-
