OGDEN, Utah -- Senior Quinton Hooker scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and North Dakota moved into sole possession of first place in the Big Sky standings with a 77-68 victory over Weber State Saturday.

Trailing by three points at the break, UND (17-8; 12-3 BSC) opened the second half on a 16-4 run and never trailed again en route to the team's first win in Ogden in five tries. Sophomores Geno Crandall and Cortez Seales added 19 and 17 points, respectively, for the Fighting Hawks.

The Wildcats (16-9; 11-3 BSC) trimmed what had grown to a 14-point deficit down to two on a pair of free throws by Jeremy Senglin with just over four minutes to play, but that would be as close as the home team would get down the stretch.

Hooker buried a corner 3-pointer on UND's next possession and Seales followed with a driving layup that put the game away. The Fighting Hawks also held a 38-28 edge on the glass with sophomore Conner Avants equaling his career-high with nine and Hooker pulling down a season-high eight to aid those efforts.

“I could not be any prouder of this group of guys,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “This has been a tough environment for everyone in the Big Sky to play, but our guys played at the level they had to in order to compete with Weber State.

“Secondly, we did the things we needed to win. We limited their transition scoring, they only made two 3-point shots and we out-rebounded them. It was an outstanding effort by everybody on this team.”

Senglin finished with 22 points, but the Wildcats could not overcome UND's hot shooting after the break. Hooker went 6-for-9 from the field and Seales made all five of his in final 20 minutes leading the Fighting Hawks to a 65.5 percent clip.

Things started and ended well for the visitors, who led by as many as six in the first half with Crandall leading that charge. He had 10 first-half points, but went to the bench with his second foul at the 9:18 mark and UND holding a 20-17 lead. Corey Baldwin would stretch the Fighting Hawks' lead to its peak at 27-21 with a triple just over three minutes later, but UND would go only 1-for-8 from the field after that.

That cold spell allowed Weber State to regain the lead before halftime after the Wildcats closed the stanza on an 11-2 run to take a 32-29 advantage into the break.

After Weber State made two free throws out of the gate, the Wildcats made only one field goal over the next six minutes that allowed UND to take control of the contest. Hooker had half of those points in the decisive 16-4 run that gave the Fighting Hawks their first sweep of the Wildcats in five seasons as a Big Sky member.

The Fighting Hawks close out a three-game Big Sky road swing at Northern Colorado next Saturday. Tip-off against the Bears is set for 8:05 p.m. CT.

-- UND --