POCATELLO, Idaho -- UND wraps up its first Big Sky road swing at Idaho State on Saturday. The Fighting Hawks and Bengals are set to tip-off at 8:05 p.m. CT.
UND VS. IDAHO STATE SERIES
All-time: UND leads 6-1
In Pocatello: UND leads 2-1
Last Meeting: UND 80, Idaho State 69 (Jan. 31, 2015)
UND Head Coach Brian Jones vs. Idaho State: 5-0
Idaho State Head Coach Bill Evans vs. UND: 0-5
WHERE TO WATCH/LISTEN/TRACK
Live Stream: www.WatchBigSky.com
Radio: 100.3 FM (Grand Forks)
Live Audio Stream: www.UNDSports.com and UND Sports Mobile App
Live Stats: www.ISUBengals.com
IN THE PAINT...
• This is the 13th two-game Big Sky road trip for the program since joining the league prior to the 2012-13 season and UND has come away with at least a split on 10 of those trips.
• UND owns a 6-1 all-time record against the Bengals and are 5-0 in Big Sky play, including two wins at Holt Arena. The teams split a home-and-home series from 2011-13 when UND was still a member of the Great West Conference.
• In last year's meeting in Grand Forks, UND beat Idaho State 80-69 as Quinton Hooker finished one rebound shy of recording the first triple-double in program history. Hooker had 15 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. The double-double was the second of his career.
• Hooker, who is the only returner from a quartet of UND double-figure scorers in the game, went 6-for-10 from the floor as the Fighting Hawks shot season-best 54.4 percent from the floor against a Division I opponent in the win over the Bengals.
• The 11-point win over the Bengals on Jan. 31 was the fourth and final Big Sky win of the season for UND, who had lost nine straight league games overall before defeating Eastern Washington 79-71 last Saturday.
• In UND's last visit to Holt Arena, that squad also turned in its best field goal percentage of the season, shooting 58.7 percent in an 80-75 win. Senior Troy Huff led the way with 22 points in that victory.
OPPONENT PREVIEW: Idaho State
• Head coach Bill Evans has Idaho State off to a 6-8 start overall and 1-1 in Big Sky play after picking up an 83-78 victory over Northern Colorado on Thursday.
• JUCO-transfer Ethan Telfair -- younger brother of former NBA player Sebastian Telfair, who made the jump straight from high school to the league in 2004 -- leads the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg and has upped his average to 19.0 ppg in two Big Sky games.
• Telfair equaled his season-high with 23 points in the win over the Bears. He also had 23 against Dickinson State (Nov. 16).
• Telfair (2nd; 2.2 spg) and UND's Geno Crandall (1st; 2.5 spg) are the top two thieves in the Big Sky. Telfair has 31 total in 14 games, while Crandall has 30 in 12 games.
• Sophomore Geno Luzcando had a career-night against UNC, leading the Bengals with 29 points after going 10-for-10 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers.
• Luzcando averaged 3.1 ppg as a reserve last season, but is third on the team in scoring this season, averaging 12.7 ppg.
• Backcourt mate Ali Faruq-Bey is second on the team in scoring, averaging 15.3 ppg. He had a career-high 32 points in a win over Cal-State Northridge and opened the year with 28 in a win over Great Falls.
• The Bengals are averaging 73.4 ppg, but yielding 78.9 ppg and have given up 100 points twice this season (102 to Utah, 100 to Utah Valley). ISU is third in 3-point field goal percentage defense as teams are making only 32.4 percent against the Bengals' two-three zone.
• ISU is 11th in the league in field goal percentage (41.5), while UND is 10th (42.3). Only Northern Arizona is worse at a 38.1 percent clip.
UP NEXT
North Dakota returns home to take on the Big Sky Treasure State schools. A tilt against Montana State is first up on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. CT. These teams split their series last season with the road team picking up wins in each of those contests.
LAST TIME OUT
Weber State 74, North Dakota 62 | Jan. 7, 2015
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Junior Quinton Hooker scored 23 points, but Weber State's two main cogs would combat that effort and propel the Wildcats to a 74-62 victory over North Dakota Thursday at the Dee Events Center.
Senior Joel Bolomboy finished with 20 points and 23 rebounds to register his NCAA-leading 14th double-double of the season and junior Jeremy Senglin added a game-high 26 points to pace the Wildcats (10-5, 2-0 BSC).
The win was the eighth straight for Weber State over UND (6-8, 1-2 BSC), who has yet to beat the Wildcats since joining the Big Sky.
Weber State built its double-digit lead at the break on the strength of 51 percent shooting from floor, while holding the visitors to just a 32.1 percent clip before halftime.
UND would close the first half on an 11-4 run and coupled that with a 10-4 run to open the second half. Those spurts trimmed what was a 19-point deficit down to six, but that would be as close as the Fighting Hawks would get.
BIG SKY FACTS
In three-plus seasons as a Big Sky member, UND owns a 29-32 record in league games. The Fighting Hawks went 12-8 in each of their first two seasons before posting a 4-14 record in conference games last season.
On the road, UND owns a 13-18 record and has won at least one game at eight of the league's 11 other venues. The only programs they have yet to pick up a road win against are Weber State (0-3), Sacramento State (0-2) and Montana (0-3).
UND lost its last four Big Sky road games a season ago, which was the longest such streak since joining the league prior to the 2012-13 season. The team has been fairly apt at earning splits on the traditional two-game Big Sky road swings, however, doing so 10 out of 12 times in its first three seasons of league play.
BYE, BYE MONKEY
With its 79-71 victory over Eastern Washington, UND not only picked up its first Big Sky win of the season, but also snapped a stretch of nine-straight league losses dating back to last season. It also ended a stretch of five-straight Big Sky home losses that were all decided by 10 points or less. UND is now 5-1 against the Eagles in Big Sky play.
STEAL AND DISH
After netting just two steals in his first four collegiate games, redshirt freshman Geno Crandall has collected 28 over the past eight games, including six total in the home split with Idaho and Eastern Washington last weekend. Crandall's surge has him a top the Big Sky charts in steals (2.5/g) and he also leads all NCAA freshmen in that category.
Crandall is also delivering the ball to his teammates in a timely manner, netting 13 assists in the first three Big Sky games of his career. For the season, he is averaging 3.7 apg (eighth best in the league).
On top of the steals and assists, Crandall also put together the first back-to-back doule-figure scoring games of his career last weekend, tallying 13 against Idaho and 15 against Eastern Washington. He averaged 14.0 ppg and added nine points in the road loss at Weber State.
HOOKER RETURNS, EQUALS CAREER-HIGH
After missing the first game of his collegiate career at K-State (Dec. 22), junior Quinton Hooker made an emphatic return to the lineup in the Big Sky opener vs. Idaho (Dec. 31). After scoring just two points and playing seven first-half minutes due to foul trouble, Hooker scored 26 second-half points to equal his career-high of 28 points set in last year's regular-season finale at Northern Colorado.
With 23 more points against Weber State (Jan. 7), Hooker has now reached double figures in 19-straight games dating back to last season and took over the scoring lead in the Big Sky with an 18.7 ppg average. He is averaging 19.7 ppg during that 19-game run.
Hooker averaged a team-best 14.6 ppg in league games last season. The Brooklyn Park, Minn., native is averaging 22.3 ppg in three league games -- a clip that ranks third among league scorers.
BERNSTINE BOARDS
Sophomore Drick Bernstine has been the catalyst behind UND being one of the top rebounding teams in the Big Sky so far this season. The Fighting Hawks rank second in rebounds per game (37.9) and are just one of six Big Sky teams with a positive margin (+0.1) in that category.
Bernstine saw his streak of six-straight double-figure rebound games come to an end at Weber State, but he was the first DI player at UND to achieve that feat. He had all three of his team-leading three double-doubles during that stretch. He ranks third in the Big Sky averaging 8.4 rpg.
His back-to-back double-doubles vs. Valley City State (Dec. 17) and at K-State (Dec. 22) were the first for a UND player since Troy Huff achieved that feat during his junior season (2012-13). Huff is UND's all-time leader in double-doubles at the DI level with 15.
SIGN, SEALES, DELIVERED AND SWATTED
Freshman Cortez Seales scored field goals on three-consecutive possessions in the closing five minutes of UND's 79-71 victory over Eastern Washington and finished with 10 points off the bench. It was his first double-digit scoring game since going for 18 vs. Youngstown State (Nov. 23). He also had all of his career-high four blocks in the second half against the Eagles after entering the game with just two rejections on the season (12 games).
HOOKER'S MULTI-DIMENSIONAL
Scoring average is not the only category that junior Quinton Hooker is among the best in the Big Sky. He is one of the league's top rebounding guards, pulling down 5.5 rpg, ranks 10th in assists (3.4/g) and is fifth in steals (1.8/g). Hooker and teammate Geno Crandall make up the Big Sky's only guard duo to both rank in the top 10 in steals and assists.
BERNSTINE BUSTS OUT OF SLUMP
After scoring double figures in his first two games at UND, sophomore Drick Bernstine had scored just 23 (3.3 ppg) total points and gone 9-for-43 from the field (20.9 percent) entering the Valley City State game on Dec. 17. He reversed his fortunes against the Vikings, however, going 9-for-13 from the field to score a career-high 20 points and register the first double-double of his career.
BOARD MEETING
One area where head coach Brian Jones and his 2015-16 squad wanted to improve from last season was their work on the glass. Through 14 games, the Fighting Hawks have held the rebounding edge six times and won five of those games. UND owns a +0.1 advantage overall (526-525). The team's 37.9 rpg is tied for second in the Big Sky. Last season, UND was outrebounded in 19 of 30 games and gave up 35.6 rpg, whlie grabbing only 32.0 rpg.
-- UND --
