GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The "Battle for Bragging Rights" comes to the Ralph Engelstad Arena on Tuesday night as North Dakota entertains North Dakota State in men's basketball action at 7 p.m. This will be the first matchup between the two rivals in Grand Forks since the 2003-04 season.

Visit ticketmaster.com or call the REA Box Office at 701.777.0855 for tickets. 

PARKING: All REA suite holders and Champions Club members on-site parking spots will be protected for the UND/NDSU men's basketball game. All other on-site parking is $5. Click here for a parking map. 

UND VS. NORTH DAKOTA STATE SERIES
All-time: UND leads 158-129
In Grand Forks: UND leads 95-42 At Ralph Engelstad Arena: UND leads 2-1
Last Meeting: NDSU won 81-56 (Dec. 11, 2010)
UND Head Coach Brian Jones vs. North Dakota State: 0-1
NDSU Head Saul Phillips vs. UND: 1-0

Television: UND Sports Network, Fox College Sports Central, 

            Midco Sports Net3 (Channel 323), DirecTV Channel 617, 

            WDAZ (Grand Forks), WDAY (Fargo), KMCY (Minot), KBMY (Bismarck)

Commentators: Pat Sweeney (Play-by-Play) and Dom Izzo (Analyst)

Radio: 100.3 FM (Grand Forks) and 970 AM (Fargo)

       iHeart Radio App (computer or smart phone)

Internet Video Stream: www.UNDSports.com (UNDInsider Subscription required)

Internet Audio Stream: www.UNDSports.com

IN THE PAINT: THE NORTH DAKOTA STATE SERIES

• UND and NDSU will play in Grand Forks for the first time since a 76-73 overtime triumph by the Green and White on Feb. 7,  2004 in a game also played at the REA.

• Jade Jahner hit a desperation 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer to square the game at 69-69 and force the extra session. Todd Rypkema was a force down low for UND that night as the 6-foot-11 center finished with 31 points and 17 rebounds. 

• The game marked the 12th overtime contest in the series and the victory by UND evened that category at six wins a piece. The last two victories by UND have been of the overtime variety (March 3, 2003 and Feb. 7, 2004).

• The 2004 tilt would be the last meeting between the two clubs as North Central Conference rivals and Division II foes. They met for the first time as respective Division I institutions last season at the FargoDome. 

• In that game, the teams were even at the half (33-33), but the Bison pulled away after the break, outscoring UND 48-22 over the final 20 minutes to post the 81-56 victory. NDSU senior Michael Tveidt led all scorers with 23 points, while Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) and Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) paced UND with 12 points each.

• Junior Mitch Wilmer (Warroad, Minn.) scored a career-high 10 points off the UND bench, but suffered a season-ending injury in the contest as well. 

• This is the 288th meeting between the two teams. Twenty-five of those have been decided by one point and 21 more have been decided by two points.

• UND owns the longest winning streak in the series, taking nine straight from Feb. 26, 1937 to Feb. 24, 1939.

• UND's largest margin of victory is 31 (96-65; March 2, 1954), while NDSU's is 36 (81-45; Feb. 20, 1959).

• UND brings a 7-1 record at home into the contest with NDSU. The squad is averaging 15.0 ppg more on its home court than in away games this season (76.2 ppg at home to 60.8 ppg on the road).

• The Bison will be the fifth team from the Summit League that UND has faced this season. So far, the Green and White are 1-4 in those contests with their lone win coming at home vs. South Dakota State, who is 7-1 in league play and 15-5 overall.

• UND is coming off a 69-46 victory over Valley City State last Thursday. The 46 points were a season-low allowed by the UND defense that held the Vikings to a 25.4 percent shooting clip from the floor.

• Sophomore Brandon Brekke (East Grand Forks, N.D.) scored a game-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. Brekke is now shooting 68.3 percent from the field on the season (43-for-63), which is tops in the GWC.

• Classmate Aaron Anderson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) added 13 points in the victory. Anderson went 6-for-11 from the field and is shooting 54.2 percent on the campaign. He tops the GWC charts in 3-point percentage at 54.5 (18-for-33).

• Sophomores Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) share the team and GWC lead with 30 steals a piece. Huff also ranks among the league leaders in points (13.8 ppg; third) and rebounds (6.0 rpg; fifth).

• Webb had six assists in the contest bringing his career total to 200 in that category.  Only a sophomore, Webb is within 77 helpers of cracking UND's career Top 10 list in that category.  He is also closing in on UND's Top 10 list for steals.  He has 82 of those and only needs 19 more to enter that list.

The meeting with NDSU will be the 19th time that UND has played on the hardwood at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. The team's overall record in the building is 12-6. The last time UND ventured next door for a contest was during the 2009-10 season when rival South Dakota dealt the home team a 82-64 setback. It will be the third time that NDSU and UND have met in the REA. UND won the initial meeting between the squads 83-79 in January of 2002. NDSU won the next matchup 64-57 in January of 2003 before UND thrilled the home crowd with a dramatic OT win in 2004 (76-73).

Head coach Saul Phillips has his squad off to a 13-4 start overall and a 6-2 clip in Summit League action (currently third in the league standings). Phillips will bring an underclassmen dominated team to Grand Forks as his top eight scorers are freshmen or sophomores.

The Bison are coming off an 82-69 victory over South Dakota on Saturday. It was the first meeting between those two schools since 2004. Sophomore Taylor Braun scored 16 points to pace NDSU once again. He leads the team in scoring at 15.9 ppg and has upped that clip to 19.9 ppg in Summit League Action. Reserve forward Jordan Aaberg registered his first career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Phillips led the Bison to an 18-11 record and a 7-7 mark in league play last season. Braun was one of six players on that squad to start at least 20 games.  Four of them are back on this year's squad as fellow sophomore Marshall Bjorklund joins Braun at the top of the team's scoring charts (12.2 ppg). The other two players with at least 20 starts last season were seniors Drew Lundberg and Eric Carlson. In fact, Carlson was the team's second leading scorer a season ago (10.1 ppg), but has played in only eight games this season and is averaging only 1.6 ppg. 

NDSU and UND have played three common opponents prior to Tuesday's tilt. The Bison are 2-1 in those contests, while UND is 1-3. Both teams easily handled Mayville State on their home courts, while they also each lost games at Western Illinois. UND also fell to the Leathernecks in Grand Forks. The Bison beat UMKC by a point at home (55-54), while UND lost a close contest with the Kangaroos 78-75 in Kansas City.

FARGO, N.D. - NDSU senior Michael Tveidt scored 15 of his game-high 23 points after halftime as the Bison blitzed UND with a strong second half, posting an 81-55 victory at the Fargodome on Saturday night in the first meeting between the two clubs as Division I foes.

UND junior Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) and true freshman Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) each had 12 points to lead the visitors in scoring, while sophomore Mitch Wilmer (Warroad, Minn.) added a career-high 10 points off the bench.

The trio's scoring output was not enough though as Tveidt and classmate Freddy Coleman took over the contest after the teams went into the break tied at 33-33 as the rivalry resumed for the first time since 2004.

Coleman scored the opening four points of the half and the Bison (6-3) never looked back, racing out to a 14-0 run that put the game out of reach for the Sioux (3-6). The fifth-year senior finished with 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

NDSU would go on to outscore UND, 48-22, in the second 20 minutes, while shooting a blistering 70.4 percent from the field (19-for-27). The Bison defense limited the Green and White to just six second-half field goals and a 30.6 percent shooting clip for the game.

The teams played in front of a Fargodome crowd of 10,709 - a new home attendance record for NDSU - and both squads gave an intense showing in the first 20 minutes as Webb tied things up at 33-33 with a put back just before the buzzer. Each squad held at least a five-point lead during the opening 20 minutes.

NDSU built its largest lead early on holding a 13-8 advantage, but UND charged back and would take a 20-19 lead on a driving layup by freshman Aaron Anderson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.).

Mitchell would extend his team's lead to its peak at 26-21 on a 3-pointer with just over four minutes to play, but that long-distance connection would be the only one of the game though for UND, who missed their other 12 attempts.

The Bison struggled from distance as well in the opening 20 minutes, making just one of seven attempts, but Tveidt and company improved that to a 3-for-6 clip in the second half.

Eric Carlson added 12 points and Drew Lundberg scored 10 points to give the Bison four double-digit scorers. Coleman helped NDSU hold a 43-37 advantage on the glass. Freshman Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) was the top rebounder for UND with seven, while Mitchell and Webb both had six.

Two of the most productive sophomore classes in Division I basketball are housed in the Peace Garden State. UND's quintet of Webb, Aaron Anderson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.), Brandon Brekke (East Grand Forks, N.D.), Josh Schuler (Urbana, Ohio), Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) produced 65.4 percent of UND's points a season ago, which was tops among any freshman class in the country. This season, that unit has upped that number to 68.8 percent of the team's scoring (754 of 1,096), but that sophomore unit has company at the top of the national charts. The Memphis sophomores, a unit UND edged out last season (63.9 percent as freshmen), is producing 70.2 percent (844 of 1,202), but the top class on the block leading the way is NDSU's. Through games of Jan. 12, the Bison second-year players are scoring 77.3 percent (985 or 1,274) of the team's points.  Taylor Braun, who started 20 games as a freshman, has nearly doubled his scoring output from 8.2 ppg to 15.9 ppg this season. Lawrence Alexander, a freshman out of Peoria, Ill., is the only non-sophomore among the top seven scores on Saul Phillips' squad.

With three blocks against Sacramento State on Dec. 18, senior Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) moved into sole possession of second place on the UND career charts for blocked shots (chart to the right). Mitchell now has 138 for his career and ranks second in the GWC with a 1.6 bpg average (24 total). Former UND standout Chris Gardner has a firm grip on the top spot after netting 313 blocks during his career from 1990-94. The sharp-shooting forward has also moved up to sixth in career 3-pointers made this season, adding 30 more makes to his total (173). Mitchell is 27 makes away from reaching 200 for his career and the No. 3 spot on the list.

With four points in the win over Valley City State on Thursday, senior Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) moved to within 25 points of becoming the 31st member of UND's 1,000-point club.  Right now, Mitchell is on pace to achieve the feat  (if his 10.8 ppg average holds) at home vs. NJIT on Jan. 26. The last player to reach the elite club was a teammate of Mitchell's during his freshman and sophomore seasons - Travis Bledsoe (21st on the list; 1,130 points).

Next up for the UND men's basketball team following its tilt with the Bison will be Great West Conference play. The first task will be a daunting one as UND travels to preseason favorite Utah Valley for a showdown on Jan. 21. The Wolverines won the regular season title in 2010-11 only to see UND capture the GWC Tournament title on the Wolverine's home court as the No. 3 seed last March in Orem.