GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Senior F O.J. Harrison's (Danville, Ill.) career night led the University of North Dakota men's basketball team to 76-68 victory over SIU Edwardsville on Thursday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Harrison scored a career-high 22 points and equaled his career-high with 14 rebounds to post the first double-double of his career and the first of the season by any UND player. The Sioux improved to 13-11 and picked up their first win over a Division I transitional team with the victory, while the Cougars fell to 9-16.
After one of the poorest first-halves of the season where UND scored just 21 points and shot 25 percent from the field, the Sioux responded with their best second-half of the campaign. UND scored a season-high 55 points to erase an eight-point halftime deficit and pick up their ninth home win of the season.
“I just told the guys to stick with the game plan in the second half and that is what we did,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We actually played OK in the first half, just didn't make any shots. Our guys stuck with it and played a great 20 minutes of basketball after halftime.”
Harrison led a quartet of UND players in double figures as he had his first 20-plus point game of his career. Senior G Daniel Harkins (Portage, Wis.) chipped in with 16 points, while fellow senior Darius Joseph (Tacoma, Wash.) added 12 points. Junior G Travis Bledsoe scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
The teams went back-and-forth in the opening nine minutes of the game as neither squad shot the ball particularly well in the opening half of play.
A 3-point play by Harkins capped an 8-2 run for the Sioux that briefly gave the home team a 14-12 lead with 11:03 to play. Unfortunately the shooting woes continued for UND and the lead would be short-lived.
The Sioux went scoreless over the next 7:25 of the game as SIUE took advantage of the drought to score 13-unanswered points and build a 25-14 advantage. A 3-pointer by Harkins silenced the visitors' run with 3:38 left on the clock.
Sophomore Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D.) sank a 3-pointer with 1:35 remaining to cut the deficit to single digits. Benter's long-range jumper would be the final points of the half for either team as SIUE took a 29-21 advantage into halftime.
The start to the second half was not any better for the Sioux as the Cougars extended their lead to 13 by scoring the first five points. However, that quickly changed as Harrison put the Sioux on the scoreboard with a lay-up that sparked a 10-1 run for UND to make the score 35-31.
SIUE G Aamir McCleary put an end to the UND run with a 3-pointer at the 15:24 mark. The Cougars would make a 3-pointer on their next two possessions to push the lead back to nine as McCauley finished with 13 points. Mark Yelovich was the high-point man for SIUE, finishing with 19.
After the trio of trey's by SIUE, Harrison scored the next six points of the game with four coming off of put backs to pull the Sioux within three again at 44-41.
“O.J. was a monster on the boards tonight,” Jones added. “He had his best game of the season and really helped us out tonight.”
A few minutes later, Joseph cut the deficit to a single point after converting a 3-point play and Harkins would later tie the game at 51-51 with a pair of free throws at the 9:24 mark.
UND took its first lead of the second half at 56-55 thanks to a 3-pointer by Benter with 8:04 to play. The Sioux would never trail again as Benter's 3-pointer sparked a 13-2 run by the home team.
The Cougars tried to get back in the game by forcing the Sioux to shoot free throws, but UND was up to the challenge as the team made 26-of-36 from the charity stripe in the final 20 minutes. Harkins led that effort with an 11-for-13 effort, while Bledsoe went 8-for-10 and finished with 10 second-half points.
The Sioux will wrap up their regular-season slate against SeattleU on Friday, Feb. 27. The match-up with the Redhawks is part of a doubleheader with the women, which is set to start at 4 p.m.
GAME NOTES: O.J. Harrison registered his first career double-double and the first of the season for a UND player ... Harrison also had career-highs in points (21) and equaled his career-high in rebounds (14) ... Sophomore Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D.) made to 3-pointers in the game after making just two in the first 23 games of the season ... Benter scored eight points after scoring just eight points in the previous seven contests and dished out a career-high five assists ... The win for the Sioux was their first over a fellow Division I transitional school this season ... UND had lost its first three such contests, dropping two games to South Dakota and one to Seattle ... The Sioux attempted a season-high 45 free throws, making 32 (71.1 percent) ... UND won the rebounding battle tonight, 34-33, and improved to 10-0 on the season when they do that.
