FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The University of North Dakota men's basketball team nearly made it three second-half comebacks in three days; however, the Fighting Hawks came up just short to Campbell in a 58-56 defeat on Sunday morning to close the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic at Alico Arena.
UND (4-5) cut the lead down to just a point with 10 seconds to play, but a missed free throw by the green and white and converted attempts at the charity stripe by the Fighting Camels held off the late charge from the Fighting Hawks.
Marlon Stewart dialed up his second straight 20-point outing in the loss for UND, doing most of his damage at the free-throw line for the second straight game. The senior hit only five shots from the field, but connected on 10-of-11 from the stripe while adding a game-high eight rebounds and an assist.
Filip Rebraca was the other Fighting Hawk to reach double figures once again with 14 points on 6-of-10 from the field, six rebounds, two blocks, and an assist. The Serbian helped UND score 30 of its 56 points in the paint while his defense limited the Camels to only 24 points in the paint and zero second-chance points.
As a team, UND finished with a 45.5% clip from the field and held Campbell to just 40.0%; however, three-point shooting proved to be the difference as the Camels hit seven of their 16 tries from deep while the Hawks connected on only four of their 17 attempts.
In what was a positive stat for the Hawks in the win over Georgia Southern yesterday, turnovers over the final 20 minutes went against the Fighting Hawks on Sunday. UND turned it over 18 times, with 10 of those coming in the second half. Campbell was much cleaner with the ball, committing only eight turnovers for the entire contest.
It was a rare slow start for the Fighting Hawks offensively, allowing Campbell to build an early 7-2 advantage in the first three minutes of play, but UND responded by eventually trimming the deficit down to two, 13-11, on a
Brady Danielson triple with just over 10 minutes to play in the stanza.
Campbell pushed its lead back up to six on a pair of occasions, but the Fighting Hawks roared back with a first half surge to close the frame. UND scored nine of the final 11 points of the half, capped off by
De'Sean Allen-Eikens' layup to give the green and white a 25-23 lead at halftime. Four-different scorers struck during the run for UND, with Rebraca and
Kienan Walter getting buckets down low,
Billy Brown hitting a corner three to tie the game, and Allen-Eikens putting the Hawks on top.
The back-and-forth affair continued in the second half, with both sides trading the lead through the opening four minutes. The Camels broke it open again near the midway portion of the period with a quick spurt to build a 36-29 lead.
UND did what it has done all weekend, rallied with a big run of its own to take a lead. The Hawks quickly turned the seven-point deficit into a 43-38 lead with a 14-2 run over a three minute span. Rebraca and Stewart combined for 11 of the 14 points during the run, with Allen-Eikens nailing a three to put the Hawks up five.
This time, UND saw its opponent rally to eventually take a 55-51 lead with just over a minute to play, but a pair of free throws by Stewart and a stop on the defensive end cut the deficit to just two, 55-53, with 10 seconds to play. Stewart earned another trip to the line with a chance to knot the game at 55, but was only able to sink one to keep the Camels in front.
UND trimmed it back down to a single point with three seconds to play, but a made free throw and a miss at the buzzer gave the Camels the 58-56 win.
North Dakota returns to action next weekend with a trip to battle a pair of former Big Sky Conference mates. UND will first battle Montana on Friday before heading to Cheney, Wash. for a Sunday showdown at Eastern Washington.
