SACRAMENTO -- Senior Quinton Hooker scored a season-high 31 points to lead North Dakota to a 90-82 roller coaster of an overtime win at Sacramento State on New Year's Eve.
The Fighting Hawks (6-6, 1-1 BSC) responded from a lopsided loss at Portland State on Thursday to earn a road split on the opening weekend of Big Sky play.
UND earned the road victory by winning in a venue it had failed to do so in four previous tries. The Hornets (3-10, 0-2 BSC) did not make it easy after the visitors dominated the first half behind Hooker's 23-point outburst.
"It was an up-and-down game. Obviously, we played extremely well in the first 20 minutes and did not play well in the second 20 minutes," UND head coach Brian Jones said. "I will say, in the final minute-and-a-half we showed a lot of composure to force overtime and we were very good offensively and defensively in the overtime."
Sacramento State stormed back from its 52-31 halftime defict to force the extra session behind the strong inside play of Eric Stuteville and Justin Strings.
In fact, Sacramento State led 72-69 after a steal and layup with 1:46 to play, but UND pulled things back to even by closing the game on a 6-3 run.
Forward Drick Bernstine capped that spurt, getting the final basket in regulation on a nice feed by Corey Baldwin with two seconds to play.
In the overtime session, UND never trailed and got big three-pointers from Geno Crandall and Cortez Seales to pull away in the closing minutes. Both sophomore finished with 12 points as did Baldwin to give the Fighting Hawks four double-figure scorers.
"We had multiple guys step up and that is what it takes when you are trying to find ways to win," Jones added. "We have had a tough scheduled leading up to now with a bunch of games on the road and wins are not going to be easy this, so I'm proud of our guys for showing that resiliency and togetherness and not allowing Thursday night's poor performance to carry over into a short turnaround."
Bernstine added eight points, 12 rebounds and five assists and UND managed to go 20-for-23 from the foul stripe after going just 6-for-19 in its previous game.
Hooker went 10-for-10 from the stripe and five of those came during a stretch of the first half where he scored 16-consecutive points for UND, who jumped out to a 26-12 advantage.
Stuteville finished with 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor, but was held scorless in the extra session. He added a season-high 14 rebounds to post a double-double. Strings tallied a team-high 26 points for the Hornets and went 9-for-16 from the field.
UND will return to action on Thursday for its Big Sky home opener against Northern Arizona. Tip-off against the Lumberjacks is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. CT.
-- UND --
