Men's Basketball 3/4/2010 11:00:00 PM Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

Gonzalez, Preadom too much for Sioux in HBU win

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The University of North Dakota men's basketball team ran into the high-scoring Houston Baptist duo of Andrew Gonzalez and Wendell Preadom on Thursday night as that pair led the Huskies to a 91-81 Great West victory at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Gonzalez went for a game-high 31 points, while Preadom added 30 in HBU's fourth straight league win.

Senior Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) led a quartet of Sioux in double figures with 27 points, but a spurt by UND (8-21, 5-6 GWC) to open the second half could only get the home team within four points after the break.

“We made a run at them to start the second half, but give them credit for withstanding that and making some big shots,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “Our guys hung tough and played well down the stretch, which was good to see. We just have to refocus and know that we have a big game on Saturday for seeding purposes.”

Redshirt freshman Nick Haugen (Rockford, Minn.) equaled his career-high with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor, while sophomore Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime. Senior Travis Mertens (Devils Lake, N.D.) rounded out the quartet with 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Gonzalez, who finished with a double-double after also grabbing a game-high 11 boards, and Preadom joined senior Mario Flaherty in accounting for 76 of the Huskies' 91 points in the contest as only three other Huskies made it into the scoring column.

Flaherty scored 15 points and his eight rebounds helped HBU hold a 37-32 edge in that category as the visitors were also proficient from the foul line, making 24-of-30 attempts. Preadom led that effort with an 11-of-14 tally.

The Sioux put a fight in the second half though after shooting just 34.4 percent in the first 20 minutes. UND connected on 17-of-29 (58.6) attempts to keep within striking distance of HBU, but the Huskies were equal to the task, making 17 of their 30 attempts to prevent a Sioux comeback.

Trailing 39-30 at the break, Bledsoe opened the second half by knocking down a jumper and a pair of treys in the first two minutes to cut the HBU lead to 42-38, but that would be as close the Sioux would draw the rest of the way.

The Huskies answered that spurt by hitting four of their first five looks from beyond the arc, efficiently building their lead to as many as 18 by the midway point of the period.

Although both teams struggled with their shooting early on – at one point they were a combined 2-for-14 from the field -- Houston Baptist was able to open up a 9-2 lead by the four-minute mark.

With the Sioux unable to put together any sort of sustained run, Preadom and Gonzalez knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Huskies back on top 35-21 with 3:10 left in the period.

Haugen managed to score four straight points to close the half, first on a pair of free throws, followed by a short jumper with three seconds left on the clock, sending UND to the locker room trailing by single digits.

The 27-point effort by Bledsoe was his ninth 20-plus scoring effort in league play as he and Gonzalez were only separated by a point (Bledsoe, 238; Gonzalez 237) in Great West scoring following the contest. Gonzalez went 12-for-18 from the floor and 4-for-7 from deep.

Mitchell added a career-high five assists and five rebounds for the Sioux.

The Sioux will wrap up their regular season at home on Saturday when three seniors will be honored prior to tipoff with Texas-Pan American. The men's portion of the doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.

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