GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The senior duo of O.J. Harrison (Danville, Ill.) and Daniel Harkins (Portage, Wis.) lifted the University of North Dakota men's basketball team to a 73-68 victory over Seattle U during Senior Night at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Friday. Harrison had his second straight double-double and finished with 22 points, while Harkins added 19 points in the third-straight win for the Sioux (14-11).
Junior G Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) also scored 19 points for the Sioux, who snapped the Redhawks' (18-7) 10-game winning streak. The Sioux led by as many as 20 points in the first half, but saw that lead shrink to as few as three points before Bledsoe made four free throws in the final nine seconds to secure the victory.
Harrison and Harkins also helped lead a dominating effort on the glass by the Sioux, who improved to 11-0 when they outrebound their opponent (44 to 29). Harrison had a game-high 11 boards, while Harkins added a career-high nine.
Harrison and Harkins along with fellow seniors Darius Joseph (Tacoma, Wash.) and Wes Porter (Arvada, Colo.) played their final regular season home game in front of 2,847 fans. Joseph had a game-high six assists, while Porter was limited to just 14 minutes to due an injury.
“This was a big win for us tonight,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We wanted to send these four seniors out on a high note and our guys stuck with it and were able to do that. This is the time of year you want to be playing your best basketball and I truly believe we are doing that.”
UND helped avenge a 23-point loss earlier in the season to the Redhawks on Feb. 7 by jumping out to a 26-6 advantage in the opening 10 minutes of the contest. UND would need everyone of those points as Seattle U made a valiant comeback attempt before losing for the first time since a 71-67 setback to Portland on Jan. 4.
Trailing by 11 at the break, Seattle U was able to open the half on a 9-3 run that pulled the visitors within five, but the Sioux quickly responded a with 5-0 run to go back up by double digits with 13:20 to play.
A putback slam by Harrison with just under 13 minutes to play brought life back to the Sioux crowd and gave him his double-double. The monstrous two-handed dunk pushed his point total to 17 and rebound tally to 10, while giving UND a nine-point lead.
“O.J. has really elevated his play for us in these last two weeks and that has helped us win the last three games,” Jones added. “Him and Hark (Daniel Harkins) were big on the boards for us tonight.”
Bledsoe extended the UND lead to 14 with his second 3-pointer of the game with just under 10 minutes to play. Bledsoe's trey was part of a 7-0 run by UND that gave them a comfortable 53-37. The comfort did not last long as Redhawk forward Austen Powers made back-to-back trey's to quickly make it a 10-point game again.
A resilient Seattle U team took advantage of poor free-throw shooting by the Sioux down the stretch to whittle its deficit down to seven with just over five minutes on the clock. However, Harrison came up with another big bucket as he took an outlet pass from Harkins and turned a lay-up into a 3-point play to put UND back ahead 57-47.
Harkins made a lay-up of his own on the next possession to extend the lead to 12 with 4:50 on the clock, but Seattle U would still not go away. The Redhawks had cut the Sioux lead to six at 61-55 with 2:23 to play when junior F Travis Mertens (Devils Lake, N.D.) went to the charity stripe for UND. Mertens struggled from the line all night, but came up with a big play following a pair of misses.
He hustled after the loose ball on the second miss and was fouled again on his lay-up attempt that he subsequently made. He converted that into a 3-point play to put UND on top by nine, 66-57 with 1:12 to play.
The free throw woes continued for the Sioux as the Redhawks had closed the gap to just three points with :10 to play, but Bledsoe, who was 2-for-4 on his previous attempts in the final minute sank a quartet of freebies to close out the win.
Powers led the Redhawks in scoring with 18 points as he made four of Seattle U's seven 3-pointers in the contest. Reserve guard Taylor Olson also had a big night for the Redhawks, scoring eight of his 15 points in the final three minutes.
In the first half, neither team came out shooting well as both squads made just one field goal in the opening three minutes of play.
But that quickly changed for the home team as junior Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) came off the bench and immediately made a 12-foot jumper from the wing to spark a 22-2 run for the Sioux that lasted just under nine minutes.
The Sioux ended up shooting 46.4 percent from the floor (13-for-28), while holding the Redhawks to a 33.3 percent clip (9-for-27).
Harrison capped off the big run with back-to-back buckets for UND to put the Sioux ahead 24-4 before the Redhawks would score again.
Forward Michael Wright ended the Redhawks' drought with a jumper to make the score 24-6. A lay-up by Harrison extended the lead back to 20 before Seattle U reeled off seven straight points to make it a 13-point contest with 4:26 to play.
After a Harrison 3-pointer and free throw by Bledsoe, the Redhawks scored 10 straight points to pull within seven at 30-23, but the Sioux would score the final four points to take an 11-point advantage into the locker room.
Harrison led all scorers with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. He also added eight rebounds in the first half as the Sioux held a 23-11 advantage on the boards.
The Sioux close out their regular season on Sunday with a trip to SIU Edwardsville. UND and the Cougars are set to tip-off at 3 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the women's team.
GAME NOTES: The Sioux honored four seniors prior to tip-off as guards Daniel Harkins (Portage, Wis.) and Darius Joseph (Tacoma, Wash.) along with forwards O.J. Harrison (Danville, Ill.) and Wes Porter (Arvada, Colo.) all played their final regular season home games for UND tonight ... Redshirt freshman Pat Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) returned to the line-up after missing one game with an injury ... Harrison posted his second straight double-double with a career-high 22 points and -- rebounds ... Junior G Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) recorded his career-high for rebounds with seven ... The Sioux improved to 11-0 on the season when they outrebound their opponent (44-29 tonight) and 11-1 when they shoot 50 percent or better (21-for-42, 50 percent) ... Bledsoe equaled his career-high with nine free throws and set a new career-high with 12 free-throw attempts ... Harkins also set a new career-high in rebounds with nine.
