GREELEY, COLO – It took another overtime win, but North Dakota picked up the season sweep of Northern Colorado with an 84-81 victory over the Bears Saturday in Big Sky men's basketball action. Sophomore Cortez Seales scored seven of his season-high 23 points in the extra session to keep the Fighting Hawks (18-8, 13-3 BSC) a top the league standings with their program-best 13th Big Sky win of the season.

Seales provided a spark off the bench once again and paced five UND players in double figures as the visitors overcame a late barrage by UNC's Jordan Davis to win their sixth straight game for the first time since the 2011-12 season. Davis finished with a game-high 30 points for the Bears (9-18, 5-11 BSC).

“For us to win, we needed our bench to be better than theirs and Cortez Seales really came up with some big plays for us down the stretch,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “We knew this was going to be a tough game and it wasn't always pretty, but we found another way to get a big road win in conference play.”

Classmate Conner Avants added 17 points for UND on 7-of-8 shooting, while Geno Crandall added 14, Quinton Hooker chipped in with 13 and Colorado native Drick Bernstine scored 12 points despite being saddled in foul trouble and playing only 12 minutes.

After leading by as many as 10 points in the first half, the Fighting Hawks started the second half on a 6-0 run to regain their double-digit lead and grew that advantage to 12 in the opening four minutes, but Davis was not going to let his team go down without a fight. The Bears had won the last two in this building over UND by a single point and the sophomore hit a buzzer-beater a year ago, but his heroics came up short this time.

Davis scored 13 of the Bears' final 14 points in regulation during the closing 4:34 after Hooker had put UND up by six with a pair of free throws. He added five more points in overtime, but that flurry was not enough for the home team.

In the extra session, UNC scored the first four points to take its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, but Seales would cap a 6-0 run that put the Fighting Hawks back in the lead. After D.J. Miles had put UNC back up by one with a pair of free throws, Seales delivered another go-ahead basket with 50 seconds to play.

Crandall, who had a look from deep to give UND the lead late in regulation, came up with the biggest play of the night on the defensive end on UNC's next possession, stealing the ball from Davis. He finished with five of UND's 14 steals as the defense forced 20 UNC turnovers, while also equaling his career-high with nine rebounds.

Following Crandall's steal, Corey Baldwin could make only one of two free throws after being fouled on his layup attempt. Trailing by two, UNC had a look from three by Chad Glotta's attempt was off the mark with 17 seconds left and Seales corralled the defensive board for his eighth rebound of the night.

Seales would make one of two as well after being fouled, but Davis opted for a layup with six seconds to play instead of a potential game-tying trey. Hooker avoided a foul to run four precious seconds off the clock and iced the game with a pair of free throws.

In the first half, the Fighting Hawks held the momentum and built a 21-11 lead on a baseline jumper by Hooker midway through the stanza, but that would be the largest lead of the half for the visitors. The Bears overcame 13 first-half turnovers by shooting 60 percent from the field to stay within reach of the Fighting Hawks.

UNC would pull within two late in the half on a driving basket by Jordan Davis, but Avants, who went 5-for-5 from the field in the opening 20 minutes, converted an easy layup on a wrap-around pass from Seales underneath to give his team a 38-34 advantage at halftime.

Seales has reached double figures in five of UND's last six games and picked up the third 20-plus point scoring game of his career. The Fighting Hawks made only one 3-pointer in the contest, but were able to knock down 25-of-33 free throw attempts to aid in their sixth Big Sky raod win of the season.

UND returns home to close out the regular season with two Big Sky games next week.  First up is a clash with Sacramento State Thursday at 7:05 p.m. CT.

-- UND --