Men's Basketball 1/16/2010 11:00:00 PM Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

Sioux fall to Coyotes in tightly-contested Great West match up, 74-64

Vermillion, S.D. – South Dakota used a late surge in the final five minutes of the game to post a 74-64 victory over the University of North Dakota men's basketball team in the first Great West meeting between the two long-time rivals at the DakotaDome on Thursday.

USD senior guard Roman Gentry scored a game-high 27 points with 16 of those coming from the free throw line as USD (9-8, 1-0 Great West) went to the stripe 52 times in the contest compared to only 13 attempts for the Sioux (3-15, 1-1 Great West).

Sophomore wing Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) scored a career-high 17 points to lead the Sioux (3-15, 1-1 Great West), while senior Travis Mertens (Devils Lake, N.D.) added 11 points and redshirt freshman Nick Haugen (Rockford, Minn.) chipped in with 10 points off the bench.

“We came in and had several guys play extremely well, but we just could not get past them at the end and overcome that late run,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We have to truly measure ourselves in our league and I think these two games show that we are going to be a team that plays hard and is going to compete night-in and night-out in the Great West.”

The Sioux buried seven 3-pointers in the first half to stay within striking distance of the Coyotes as they went into halftime trailing just 32-30. UND made 50 percent of their 3-point attempts, while USD went just 4-for-14 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

The second half was tightly contested until the Coyotes pulled away in the final five minutes when sophomore Louie Krogman drilled a 3-pointer from the corner. Krogman's third trey of the game put USD ahead for good at 53-52 with 5:08 to play.

UND held the Coyotes to just 29.1 percent shooting for the game, but the home team went 36-for-52 from the free throw line to make up for the poor effort from the field. The Sioux knocked down 45.5 percent of their shots and equaled their season-high with nine 3-pointers.

Mitchell made three of those long-distance shots as he went 6-for-10 from the field and 3-for-6 from deep. Mertens went 5-for-10 from the field and had seven rebounds. Junior Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D.) had eight points and team-high nine rebounds.

The contest saw the lead change hands on nine different occasions and the score was tied five times throughout the 40 minutes of play.

The Sioux led by as many as three points late in the second half after a Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) free throw with 5:44 to play, but the Yotes outscored UND 21-12 the rest of the way to post a win in the their inaugural Great West league tilt. Bledsoe scored eight points.

These same two teams will meet again next Saturday in Grand Forks at the Ralph Engelstad Arena as part of a doubleheader with the women's team.

The 'Meltdown at the Ralph' begins at 5 p.m. with the men's game following approximately 30 minutes after the women's game concludes.

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