Vermillion, S.D. — For the first time in six seasons, the Fighting Sioux men's basketball team swept its season series from South Dakota, picking up an 83-73 victory over the Coyotes at the DakotaDome on Saturday. Redshirt freshman Brandon Brekke (East Grand Forks, N.D.) led four UND players in double figures with 17 points as he posted his third double-double in Great West play.
Freshman Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) and junior Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) each added 16 points for UND (11-10, 4-1 GWC), who held off a late rally by the Coyotes (11-11, 3-2 GWC) to pick up the club's first road win of the season.
Huff had 13 second-half points and classmate Josh Schuler added nine of his 13 after the break to keep the Sioux in the lead throughout the final 20 minutes. UND led 37-33 at the break thanks to 10 points from Brekke and Mitchell.
USD did close to within a point at 54-53 with 11:20 to play, but Huff made a layup and Brekke added a three-point play to push the lead quickly back to six.
The Coyotes would close to within four down the stretch, but they would not get any closer as the Sioux were relentless attacking the rim in the second half and were able to make enough of their 28 attempts from the stripe to seal the win.
Huff added a thunderous one-handed dunk with under 10 minutes to play to quiet the crowd of 2,867 that tried to “White Out” the dome.
“I think we showed poise and toughness down the stretch,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “Our team is buying into playing together and that showed up again tonight.
“We have learned from our past road experiences and were able to stop a couple of the runs that they made at us. Those past experiences helped us win in a really tough place to play.”
UND shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the second half and its stingy defense limited the home team to just a 35.3 percent clip, which included a 0-for-11 effort from beyond the arc.
USD made only one trifecta in the first half and finished 1-for-19 from the game.
Brekke continued his torrid field goal shooting, making 8-for-10 from the floor and pulling 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-8 rookie is shooting 70.4 percent for the season.
Seven of Brekke's boards were on the offensive end as he helped the Sioux post 18 second-chance points. Mitchell added eight boards as the Sioux held a 42-37 advantage on the glass.
Freshman Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) added eight assists for the Sioux and also had a game-high four steals.
The Sioux return to the floor next week for a pair of GWC road games at NJIT (Feb. 10) and at Chicago State (Feb. 12).
– Go Sioux –
