Men's Basketball 12/16/2009 2:00:00 PM Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

MBB Game Notes: Sioux set to entertain Jacobson, UNI to 'The Betty'

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The Fighting Sioux men's basketball team is set to entertain former Sioux point guard Ben Jacobson and his Northern Iowa Panthers on Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the game will be televised on Fox College Sports Central.

ALL-TIME VS. NORTHERN IOWA (UND leads 48-31)
Last Meeting - Northern Iowa 69, North Dakota 49 (Cedar Falls, Iowa; 12/6/08)
• The Sioux and Panthers renewed a rivalry last season that had been dormant since both were North Central Conference members at the Division II level in 1978.
• In last year's meeting on Dec. 6, UNI jumped out to a 38-19 lead at the half behind a 60 percent shooting effort from both the floor and 3-point territory. The Panthers only outscored the Sioux 31-30 after the break.
• UND's Travis Bledsoe came off the bench to score a game-high 18 points. He connected on 5-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc. Point guard Kwadzo Alegebhe led the Panthers with 17 points.
• The Sioux hold a 26-9 record on their home court against the Panthers and have won nine straight of those meetings in Grand Forks.
• The largest margin of victory for the Sioux was a 31-point triumph in on Dec. 28, 1965 (86-55). The Panther's largest victory came three seasons later by the score of 85-60 on Feb. 7, 1969.
• UND has a pair of two-point victories (25-23; Jan. 7, 1937 and 67-65; Jan. 25, 1975), while UNI has the lone one-point victory in the series, posting a 63-62 win on Dec. 14, 1963.
• The teams met seven times in the NCC Holiday Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the Sioux won all of those contests from 1965-1974.

SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
• Head coach Ben Jacobson has used the same starting line-up in all eight contests this season (UND head coach Brian Jones has used six).
• All five of those starters are returning starters from the 2008-09 team that tied a school-record with 23 wins, shared the Missouri Valley regular season championship and won the conference tournament as the top seed.
• The overtime win over Illinois State gave the Panthers a berth in the NCAA Tournament (lost in the first round to Purdue).
• Junior Kwadzo Alegebhe, a second team All-Missouri Valley performer a season ago, has picked up where he left off. He leads the team with a 15.6 ppg clip and has been named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week two out of the last three weeks. Alegebhe averaged 17 ppg in wins over Iowa and Siena last week to earn his second weekly honor from the MVC.
• Forward Adam Koch is one of three seniors in Jacobson's starting line-up. He was a first team all-MVC performer last year and is averaging 14.8 ppg. Koch is tops on the team in field goal shooting at 54.3 percent (38-for-70).
• Center Jordan Eglseder leads the team with 8.4 rpg and 31 of his 67 boards have come on the offensive end. He is also averaging 12.3 ppg.
• The Panthers rely heavily on their starters to score as 83.7 percent of the offense comes from the five returners. As a team, UNI is averaging 67.8 ppg and yielding only 60.1 ppg.

MEDIA INFORMATION: The UND-UNI tilt will be televised on Fox College Sports Central and the Fighting Sioux Sports Network. Pat Sweeney will handle the play-by-play duties, while Jody Norstedt will serve as the color analyst. The game can also be heard locally on 100.3 FM (Cat Country). Paul Ralston will handle the play-by-play for the audio broadcast. Live streaming of the game as well as live stats are available on www.FightingSioux.com.

LAST TIME OUT: The Sioux could not overcome a 20-point halftime deficit as IPFW secured a 73-52 victory on Dec. 12 at Memorial Coliseum. Senior Travis Mertens scored a career-high 19 points for UND and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to post his third double-double of the season. Mertens went 4-for-6 from the field and junior Chris Clausen was 4-for-4 and finished with 11 points, but the rest of the Sioux struggled to get anything going offensively as the team shot just 30.4 percent from the floor. The shooting woes began early for the visitors as they made just one of their first 13 field goal attempts in the contest as the Mastadons jumped out to an 18-4 advantage.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY: UNI head coach Ben Jacobson will see plenty of familiar faces upon his return to Grand Forks this Saturday. However, the venue and the bench he sits on will all be different. After playing and coaching in more than 250 games at UND, Jacobson will be opposing the Sioux for just the third time in his career and first at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. His first two contests against the Sioux were split during the 2000-01 season when he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at North Dakota State.

Following that season with the Bison, Jacobson took a similar post at UNI where he is currently in his eighth season overall and fourth as the head coach. During those three-plus seasons at the helm of the Panthers' program, Jacobson has posted a 66-39 overall record and led last year's squad to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title. Jacobson and the Panthers shared the MVC regular season title with Creighton and were the top-seed in the tournament.

Prior to his coaching career taking off, the Mayville native was a four-time letterwinner at UND and two-year captain for the Sioux. UND won a pair of NCC titles during his tenure as a player and still ranks second all-time in assists at UND with 420. His 203 helpers as a senior still stand as the third most in a single season by a Sioux point guard.

ALMA MATER EXCHANGE: Ben Jacobson will not be the only head coach facing his alma mater in Saturday's tilt at 'The Betty'. UND's fourth-year head coach Brian Jones played for the Panthers from 1990-94.

BLEDSOE RETURNS: Senior guard Travis Bledsoe made his first start of the season against IPFW last Saturday (Dec. 12). Bledsoe has appeared in four games now since returning from an abominal injury that kept him out for seven games after he tried to go in the opener at Montana. Bledsoe had is best outing of the season in the loss to Mayville State on Dec. 8 when he scored a season-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. It was the 38th double-figure game of his career and third 20-point effort. He logged a season-high 22 minutes as well and scored 15 second-half points.

MIX AND MATCH: Head coach Brian Jones has used six different starting line-ups this season through 11 games and nine different Fighting Sioux have earned a start out of 12 that have seen action. Unfortunately, the injury bug has been the primary reason for that. Seniors Travis Mertens is the only player to start all 11 games for UND. Redshirt freshman Nick Haugen made his first career start on Dec. 5 vs. Drake and has started the last three games. Senior guard Travis Bledsoe made his first start of the season after coming off the bench in the previous three games since returning from an injury.

COLLECTIONS AGENT: Senior wing Travis Mertens, who is the lone returning starter for UND, has led the Fighting Sioux in rebounds in all 11 of their contests this season. The 6-foot-5, Devils Lake native has equaled his career-high of 10 rebounds three times this season and has corralled a total of 83 (7.5 rpg). He has 47 more than his next closest teammate (Patrick Mitchell, 36) and also has a team-high 21 offensive rebounds. All three times Mertens has grabbed 10 rebounds, he ended up with a double-double, including a 19-point (career-high), 10-rebound outing at IPFW on Saturday (Dec. 12).

MITCHELL'S RACKS UP FIRST DOUBLE-DOUBLE IN HOMETOWN: Sophomore wing Patrick Mitchell had a career first in his return to Des Moines, where he was a first team All-Iowa selection as a senior at Dowling Catholic High School. In the Dec. 5th consolation game against Drake, Mitchell had 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds to post the first double-double of his career. It was the fourth by a Sioux this season as senior Travis Mertens also had a double-double against Drake with 13 points and 10 boards.

TOPS IN THE GREAT WEST: ESPN.com recently ranked each of the 33 Division I conference's recruiting classes for the 2009-10 season and the Fighting Sioux were given the top class in the Great West Conference. UND signed a pair of guards from two of the biggest cities in the Midwest - Troy Huff from Milwaukee (Brookfield Academy) and Aaron Anderson from Minneapolis (Osseo High School). Huff and Anderson will likely be joined by one more player to round out head coach Brian Jones' fourth recruiting class with UND.

MELTDOWN AT THE RALPH: The Fighting Sioux will play a home game outside of the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign when they move next door to face long-time rival South Dakota on Jan. 23. UND went 5-1 in six contests at the Ralph Engelstad Arena that season and own a 12-5 overall record there. The Sioux have split two previous meetings with the Coyotes at REA, winning 70-62 on Jan. 16, 2004 and dropping an 89-69 decision on Jan. 15, 2005. The contest is part of a double-header with the women's team dubbed 'Meltdown at the Ralph'. UND and USD are conference rivals once again as both schools are in year two of their transition to the Division I level. The Sioux and Yotes are part of the seven-team Great West Conference and will twice during the regular season. UND plays at the DakotaDome on Saturday, Jan. 16.

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