MOSCOW, Idaho – Junior guard Terrel de Rouen scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half as North Dakota rallied for a 71-63 road victory over Idaho in Big Sky men's basketball action Thursday. Backcourt mate Estan Tyler added 16 for UND (6-11, 2-4 BSC), who snapped a four-game losing skid.

Idaho (7-10, 2-4 BSC) was led by Connor Hill's 14 points and he made a couple of 3-pointers late to make the visitors sweat, but the Vandals dropped their fourth straight after leading by seven at halftime.

Idaho opened the game on a 7-0 run and would extend that to 13-2 in the opening seven minutes of the contest, but UND clawed its way back to post an important league victory.

“Our second half defense was the key,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We got off to a slow start, but started grinding back in it there late in the first half. Then, our defense took over after halftime. We got loose balls, rebounds and made some big shots early to keep that momentum.”

The Vandals would lead by as many as 15 in the opening half on a 3-pointer by Hill with just over six minutes to play. Those were the only points of the half for IU's leading scorer, who came in averaging 17.8 ppg in league play.

UND would get its deficit all the way down to seven as the visitors hit their final two 3-pointers of the stanza after opening the game 1-for-11 from beyond the arc.

UND used the momentum it took into the locker room to storm ahead of the Vandals in the second half as the visitors raced out with the first eight points to grab their first lead of the game at 33-32 lead.

After a 3-pointer by Hill gave the lead back to the home team, UND scored the next nine points to cap a 17-3 run to open the half and push the lead to 42-35.

UND opened the second half by making 10 of its first 12 field goals, while Idaho went 2-for-11 during that same stretch. UND's hot start was punctuated by a Dustin Hobaugh 3-pointer that put UND up by 12. The visitors would shoot 63.6 percent from the field in the second half, while holding Idaho to a 35.7 percent clip.

The Vandals would not let the game get away though as Hill and company staged their own rally, trimming their deficit down to two points with just over two minutes to play. UND made enough free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.

Arkadiy Mkrtychyan added 13 points for the Vandals and went 7-for-8 from the foul stripe. The rest of the Vandals went just 8-for-20 on free throws. UND was not much better from the stripe, finishing 19-for-29.

Shanks and Quinton Hooker shared the team lead in rebounding with six a piece. Idaho held a slight 31-30 edge on the glass with Mkrtychyan leading all players with eight.

UND closes out a two-game Big Sky road swing at Eastern Washington on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. CT.

-- UND --