Golf de Juan, France – The North Dakota men's basketball team appeared to be cruising to a 4-0 record on its 2015 European Tour, but Golfe de Juan made the squad earn its perfection as the Green and White staged off a late by the local team. In the end, it was an 85-75 triumph for UND over the French team as junior Quinton Hooker had 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Geno Crandall also had a big night, finishing with the team's first double-double of the tour as he scored 16 points and dished out 11 assists.
“I was proud of our guys for preserving through that fourth quarter,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We came out flat after building a pretty good lead there at the end of the third quarter. We got sloppy with the basketball. I think we had seven straight turnovers at one point and that's how they got back in the game.
“But, it was a good test for us because we had not faced adversity late in a game over here. That was our Achilles' heel last year, not being able to finish out games when things got tight, so I think that was a good sign and something this young team can build on.”
Golfe de Juan used a 23-5 run to open the fourth quarter and erased what was a 65-47 deficit. That spurt tied the game at 70-70 with 2:40 left to play, but Hooker and company had an answer, closing the game on a 15-5 surge.
Sophomore Carson Shanks made a hook shot in the lane to spark that closing run by the visitors and Hooker had nine of those points. He led UND in scoring in all four contests and finished the tour averaging 22.3 ppg.
UND led 60-45 at the half and pushed that to 20-plus midway through the third quarter before going cold from the field and getting careless with the basketball. After just turning the ball over 10 times in the first three quarters, the team had eight miscues in the final stanza, which allowed Golfe de Juan to get back in the game.
Sophomore Drick Bernstine had six of his 10 points in the closing stanza as he rounded out a trio of UND scorers in double figures.
Hooker went 10-for-18 from the field to help UND finish 31-for-54 from the floor. UND was once again active on the defensive end, coming up with 18 steals. Corey Baldwin led the team for the second straight game as he had seven steals once again.
UND will return home after picking off all four of its foreign opponents and take a few weeks off before resuming preparations with individual workouts for the 2015-16 season, which begins with a home contest against Minnesota Morris on Nov. 13.
Scorers: Hooker (25), Crandall (16), Bernstine (10), Conner Avants (7), Dustin Hobaugh (6), Carson Shanks (6), Baldwin (4), Bryce Cashman (4), Cortez Seales (4), Adam McDermott (2), Josh Collins (2)
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