GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Freshman Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) led four Sioux players in double figures with 15 points as the University of North Dakota men's basketball team won its Great West Conference opener, 75-62, over rival South Dakota on Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Freshman Josh Schuler (Urbana, Ohio) scored all 13 of his points after the break and junior Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) registered his first double-double of the season with 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds to help lead UND (8-9, 1-0 GWC) to its third straight win in front of a season-high 2,778 fans.
Webb and Schuler's classmate, Brandon Brekke (East Grand Forks, Minn.), contributed to the victory with a career-high 11 points and seven rebounds as the Sioux avenged a pair of losses to the Coyotes in Great West play from a season ago.
The Coyotes (8-10, 0-1 GWC) dropped their third straight after managing to hit just 37.3 percent of their shots in the contest. USD opened the contest missing 19 of its first 22 shots.
“I think our defense set the tone for the entire game,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We opened the game kind of slow, but Jamal picked us up in the first half and we found our rhythm offensively and did a nice job staying patient.
“And, I thought we really grew up as a club in the second half. We told our guys South Dakota was too good of a team to not make a run at us and we withstood that and were able to get to the foul line in those final 10 minutes to swing the momentum back in our favor.”
The game started slow for both teams with USD holding a 3-0 advantage five minutes into the contest before Webb put the Sioux on the scoreboard with a jumper in the lane.
Webb's jumper would spark a 16-2 run over the next 4:46 to give the home team a nice cushion to work with. Webb had 11 points during that run making his first five shots from floor, capping the stretch with a steal and a coast-to-coast layup. His 15 points equaled his season-high set twice earlier during the year.
Freshman Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.), who finished with nine, gave UND its largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 28-12 with a 3-pointer at the 5:16. The Coyotes struggled mightily from the field, making just three of their first 22 attempts before finally getting it going late in the first half.
USD would cut its deficit back to 10 in the closing minute, but sophomore Jordan Allard (Fargo, N.D.) scored the final points of the half on a jumper from the elbow to put the Sioux ahead 37-25 at the break.
After Schuler's first points of the contest, Allard, who finished with a season-high eight points and five rebounds, made a driving layup to put the Sioux up by 12 again four minutes into the final stanza. The Coyotes did not relent, whittling their deficit down to just three points as UND went through a dry spell.
“We have had some eight to 10 minutes lapses in the second half of games this season,” Jones added. “But, we limited that today to about three or four minutes and our guys showed some toughness to get the momentum back.”
Brekke sparked a quick 6-0 run that included a 3-pointer by Schuler, putting UND back up by nine points at 54-45 with just over nine minutes left in the contest.
Louie Krogman, who led USD with 16 points, drilled the team's first 3-pointer of the game at the 8:24 mark after the club had missed its first 12 attempts from beyond the arc. Krogman's trey made it a 56-50 contest, but that would be as close as the visitors would get.
Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer of his own and Webb made a jumper to make the lead double-digits again for the Sioux, who would go on to post their biggest win over the Coyotes since the 2002-03 season.
Schuler, who also dished out a season-high six assists, and Mitchell both went 6-for-6 from the foul line as the team went 14-for-17 (82.4 percent) from there in the second half.
Mitchell's third career double-double helped the Sioux hold a 42-35 advantage on the glass. Webb added seven boards and four assists.
Krogman was joined in double figures by USD teammates Kendall Cutler (13 points) and Ricardo Andreotti (10 points).
UND will return to Great West play on Thursday against Utah Valley in a doubleheader with the women's team set to start at 6 p.m.
– Go Sioux –
