GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The University of North Dakota men's basketball held off a pesky Jamestown College team on Saturday, posting a 74-66 victory over the Jimmies at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Sophomore Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) scored a season-high 23 points and senior Patrick Mitchell also added a season-high with 21 points to pace the Sioux (4-2).

UND, who beat the Jimmies for the 10th straight time dating back to 1946, led by as many as 18 in the second half, but a late 12-1 run by the visitors made things interesting down the stretch. The Jimmies (7-3) were led by sophomore Mark Hoge and senior Brandon Robbins, who had 12 points apiece.

Sophomore Josh Schuler (Urbana, Ohio) posted his third-straight, double-figure game off the UND bench, finishing with 12 points.

“I thought we were ready to play. Our offense, again, was slow to start the first half, but we held them to I think 20 points, so our defense was on par,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We (forced) 17 turnovers at the half and they finished with 27, so it was good effort there, but it was kind of a tale of two halves on both sides of the ball.”

The Sioux built a 33-20 lead at the break thanks to a 10-0 run to close the opening 20 minutes. Huff had two of his three dunks in the contest during that stretch as UND scored 17 points off 17 first-half turnovers by the visitors.

Huff also had team-highs with seven rebounds and five assists as he and Mitchell combined to go 13-for-28 from the field. Mitchell added a season-high four blocks and sophomore Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) had a career-high five steals to go with six points.

It took about 18 minutes for the Sioux to build a comfortable lead, but they finally did with that late first-half run and give themselves a 33-20 advantage at the break. 

The spurt created a little separation after a pair of back-to-back, 3-pointers by the Jimmies cut their deficit to just three with two minutes, 19 seconds to play in the half. 

Huff led UND with 11 points in the first half, but it was not until those final two minutes that things started to click.  Mitchell came out firing again in the second half, scoring 10 quick points to push the home team's lead to 18, but Hoge and company clawed their way back in it.

Mitchell made a turnaround in the paint with 8:36 on the clock to put UND ahead 61-44, but that would be the final field goal of the game for the Sioux. The Jimmies took advantage of the field-goal drought to pull within four points, but they could never get it down to a single-possession contest. 

The Sioux made 13-of-20 free throws in those closing eight minutes to seal the victory. 

UND will take to the road for its next action, facing Idaho State in a rematch from earlier this season. The Sioux defeated their future Big Sky conference foe 63-47 on Nov. 14 at 'The Betty'. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m. CT.

– Go Sioux –