Media day recap: Sioux prepare for Chicago State

Men's Basketball 2/20/2010 6:00:00 PM Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

Bledsoe surpasses 1,000 points, Sioux trump Utah Valley on Family Day

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – It was Family Day for the University of North Dakota men's basketball program and senior Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) gave his parents, Richard and Evelyn, a special memory as he led the Sioux to a 74-58 victory over Utah Valley on Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

The victory was only part of it as Bledsoe's game-high 20 points pushed him past the 1,000-point plateau for his career and into the UND record books. He became the 30th player in Fighting Sioux history to achieve that feat and has now scored 20-plus points in five of UND's seven Great West tilts.

“What a great accomplishment and to be able to do it at home and have your family in attendance was really special,” UND head coach Brian Jones said of his fifth-year senior's accomplishment. “He brings so much energy to this team and the other guys really fed off of that today.”

The win also moved UND (7-18, 4-3 GWC) over the .500 mark in league play as they swept the home-and-home series from the Wolverines (11-15, 4-6 GWC).

Bledsoe, who went 5-for-9 from the field and 3-for-6 from 3-point range, was joined in double figures by a trio of teammates.

Redshirt freshman Nick Haugen (Rockford, Minn.) scored all of his 14 points in the second half, while junior Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D) had 12 points and senior Travis Mertens (Devils Lake, N.D.) finished with 10 points. Haugen fell a point shy of tying his career best scoring outpput.

“I thought we came out and played well enough in the first half, but really turned it on in the second half both offensively and defensively,” Jones added. ”We wore them down and played a solid 40 minutes of basketball today.”

The Sioux shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half, while holding UVU to just six field goals on 18 attempts (33 percent). UND also protected the ball better than usual, committing a season-low eight turnovers and turning 18 Wolverine miscues into 18 points.

The day belonged to Bledsoe though and he reached the milestone in an appropriate way, draining a 3-pointer to open the second half of play and break what was a 33-33 halftime tally.

After UVU's Justin Baker once again squared it up at 39-39 with a jumper from the top of the key, Haugen drained a 3-pointer and turned a steal into two points to spark what became a 20-4 run for the Sioux over the next eight minutes.

The UND lead ballooned to 59-43 before Petty sank his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 8:52 to play. The Wolverines would get it back to a 10-point deficit late in the second half, but could never get their disadvantage down to single digits. Petty finished with 15 points.

UVU senior Jordan Swarbrick, who matched Bledsoe with 20 points, scored seven of those early off the bench to push the Wolverines' lead to 11-5. That would be the visitors' largest lead of the game as Bledsoe quickly erased that with six straight points of his own to tie it at 11-11.

The Sioux would use an 8-2 run to move ahead 21-17 as sophomore Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) drained a 3-pointer to spark that run. UND could have built a larger lead, but failed to take more advantage of a what turned into a seven-minute field goal drought for UVU.

Swarbrick ended that stretch with a 3-pointer to cut the Wolverines' deficit to just one. A quick spurt by UND had the home team ahead by five at 28-23, but Tyray Petty sank a trio of 3-pointers in the final six minutes of the half to keep UVU in it.

Petty's third trifecta in the final minute was matched by redshirt freshman Jordan Allard (Fargo, N.D.), who banked in a 3-pointer with under 30 seconds on the clock to give the Sioux a 33-31 lead.

The slight edge would not hold though as UVU guard Kevin Woods sank an 18-foot jumper with a second remaining to even things up going into the break. The Sioux turned nine UVU turnovers into 11 points, while committing only three miscues of their own in the opening 20 minutes.

Benter (Crosby, N.D.), who returned to action after missing the previous two games, went 5-for-7 from the field as UND finished with a 51 percent field-goal clip (25-for-49). Bledsoe, who is now 12-for-17 from 3-point range in his last three games, also had a game-high five assists.

The Sioux will wrap up a four-game homestand on Tuesday as they will play New Jersey Institute of Technology in a make-up game at 'The Betty' at 2 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for Feb. 11, but the Highlanders were stranded in New Jersey because of poor travel conditions.

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