Men's Basketball 3/6/2010 8:00:00 PM Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

Fighting Sioux fall short to UTPA 71-68 on Senior Day

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - In its final home game of the season, the University of North Dakota men's basketball team fell just short, dropping a 71-68 decision to Texas-Pan American on Senior Day at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

A 3-pointer by senior Travis Bledsoe (Minneapolis, Minn.) rimmed out in the closing seconds that would have sent the teams into overtime for the second time this season. The loss was the fourth straight for the Sioux (8-22, 5-7 GWC), while UTPA (5-26, 4-8 GWC) won for the first time on the road in league play.

"There is no other player that I would want to take that shot," UND head coach Brian Jones said. "He has made that time-and-time again throughout his career. This one just came up a little short, but our guys battled and we had a chance there at the end to make something happen."

Bledsoe finished with a team-high 15 points and classmate Travis Mertens collected his sixth career double-double in the duo's final home game. Mertens had 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds as the Sioux held a 36-27 advantage on the glass. Junior Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D.) added 13 points and nine boards for UND.

Freshman Aaron Urbanus finished with a game-high 19 points for UTPA. Eleven of those came early in the first half when he and teammate Manny Hendrix staked the Broncs to a 19-7 advantage. Hendrix scored 12 of his 14 bench points in the first half, while Urbanus had 14 in the opening 20 minutes.

UND would not give in though and clawed all the way back with an 11-1 run to tie at 25-25 on a 3-point play by redshirt freshman Nick Haugen (Rockford, Minn.). A quick spurt by the Broncs, however, pushed their lead back to seven with 4:27 to play.

The Sioux once again had an answer though, closing the half on 10-4 run to make it a 36-35 contest at the break. After Bledsoe tied it up at 38-38 with a trey, Haugen would give the Sioux their first lead of the game at 43-42 on a steal and a lay-up with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Benter extended that lead to two with a free throw, but UTPA would use a series of runs over the next eight minutes to push the lead to its peak at 64-53 with 6:09 to play.

Sophomore Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa), who finished with 10 points, drained a 3-pointer to spark a Sioux rally that saw the home team close the gap to just a point with under 30 seconds to play.

Bledsoe made it 69-68 with a driving lay-up, but Nick Weiermiller sank a pair of free throws to extend the Broncs' lead to 71-68 with 15 seconds remaining.

The Sioux got the look they wanted when Bledsoe was set free from the top of the key by a Benter screen, but his 3-point attempt rimmed in and out as a chase for the loose ball ensued before the horn finally sounded.

Bledsoe went 3-for-7 from beyond the arc as the Sioux finished 9-for-19 from 3-point land. The Broncs also went 9-for-19, led by Urbanus, who hit 4-of-9 from deep.

The Sioux will have to wait on the final regular season game of Great West play on Sunday before finding out their seeding for the upcoming Great West Tournament in Orem, Utah. Action begins on Wednesday and UND will either be the No. 3 seed or the No. 4 seed depending on the outcome of the South Dakota-New Jersey Institute of Technology game on Sunday evening.

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