FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Senior Troy Huff scored 28 points and classmate Jamal Webb added 14 as North Dakota picked up a pivotal road win Saturday with a 75-63 victory over Northern Arizona Saturday at the Walkup Skydome. The win gives UND (12-14, 9-7 BSC) a season sweep over the Lumberjacks (11-16, 8-8 BSC) and its fourth Big Sky road split of the season.
UND trailed 31-30 at the break, but Webb came out and hit a trio of 3-pointers in the second half and Huff scored 18 of his game-high output in those closing 20 minutes to make sure the visitors stayed in the top half of the league standings.
“We really played well from start to finish except for about three minutes there at the end of the first half. Outside of that, I was proud of the way we played,” Head coach Brian Jones said. “This was a big win, obviously, because of how tight the standings are and this gives us a little separation with our next three at home.”
Huff scored 14 straight points over a four-minute stretch in the second half after Webb had given UND the lead back for good with his long-range shooting. Huff's scoring spree pushed UND's lead out to 13 points as he scored in a variety of ways.
Junior Lenny Antwi and senior Alonzo Traylor both reached double figures off the bench for UND and both players helped UND hold a 33-29 advantage on the glass. Webb also helped on the boards with a season-high nine and he added a game-high six assists.
Antwi had 12 points, which were his most since the season opener, and Traylor had 11, including a key 3-point play late that snuffed out any hopes of a NAU comeback. Quinton Upshur had 18 points off the Lumberjacks' bench and Kris Yanku was the lone NAU starter to reach double figures with 15 points.
Both teams suffered through stretches of sloppy play in the opening 20 minutes, combining for 17 turnovers, but each team could only score six points apiece off those miscues.
That last of those turnovers did cost UND the halftime lead after Yanku made a pair of free throws to put his team up at the break 31-30 and cap a 7-0 run by the home team in the final two minutes.
UND led by as many as seven after Antwi hit his second 3-pointer of the half to put UND ahead 24-17 Traylor provided a boost with eight points off the bench, including an emphatic dunk late in the half, but the Lumberjacks would outscored the visitors 14-6 over the final five minutes to regain the lead.
Neither team shot particularly well in the first half as UND went 11-for-26, while NAU was 11-for-27. That changed for the visitors in the second half as the Green and White went 5-for-7 from beyond the arc and shot 57 percent from the floor.
With his 28 points, Huff became the first UND player since Jerome Beasley (772; 2002-03) to score 500 points in a single season. He now has 506 for the campaign as the 20-plus point game was his 12th of the season.
UND now returns home for three straight Big Sky games starting on Thursday vs. Portland State. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT from the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
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