GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Senior Jaron Nash scored a game-high 19 points to lead a dominant North Dakota bench effort as the home team knocked off Montana 74-69 in a key Big Sky matchup Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Classmate Troy Huff added 18 points with 12 of those coming in the second half as UND withstood a late charge by the visitors.
The victory was the first for UND (11-13, 8-6 BSC) over the Grizzlies (12-11, 7-7) in four tries since joining the Big Sky last season, but more importantly it put the Green and White one game ahead of Montana as the two teams entered the contest tied for fourth in the league standings.
“We showed a lot of resolved today after the way we played on Thursday,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We came out with a different energy level today and had a defensive focus for 40 minutes. I thought that was the difference and our bench was huge again.”
It was the 13th straight game that UND's reserves outscored their opponents bench players - this time it was by a margin of 30-12. Nash did a majority of that damage in the first half when he scored 17 of his 19 points.
“Jaron had a great game and really used his length to his advantage against their zone,” Jones added. “He was really big in the first half and helped us get back in it and really take back control of the game going into halftime.”
UND raced out to a 22-11 advantage midway through the half, but the Grizzlies responded with a 16-1 run over a four-minute stretch that put them ahead by four. Junior Jordan Gregory had 12 points during that run as he converted a pair of 3-point plays and also hit two 3-pointers.
But after Gregory capped the run with one of those 3-point plays, Nash took over from there, scoring 13 of UND's final 15 points of the half. That allowed his squad to regain the advantage and led 38-33 at the break. Nash assisted on the only other UND basket during that 15-6 closing stretch.
The Grizzlies, who turned the ball over on average just 10 times a game, had 12 second-half turnovers alone. Some of those miscues allowed UND to build its advantage to 12 with a quick 7-0 run to start the frame and as many as 14 with just over four minutes to play.
Reigning Big Sky Player of the Kareem Jamar would not let his team go down without a fight though as he and reserve Mike Weisner quickly trimmed the lead down to four late in the contest, but that would be as close as the Grizzlies would get in this one.
UND ended up with 12 steals in the game as Huff and classmate Jamal Webb each had four, which led to a season-high 17 turnovers by Montana. UND turned those mistakes into 21 crucial points.
Nash went 9-for-13 for the game as UND shot percent from the floor. Jamar led Montana with 18 points with 11 of those coming in the second half. The Grizzlies shot 51.1 percent for the game and held a slight edge in rebounding at 30-27.
The Green and White will return to the road for two more Big Sky games next week with the first one set for Thursday at Sacramento State.
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