FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota State's Tyson Ward and Vinnie Shahid each tallied over 20 points, including a game-high 27 and 11 rebounds by Ward, to lead the Bison past North Dakota, 83-74, on Sunday afternoon from the SCHEELS Center in Fargo.
 
The loss is the fourth straight in conference play for the Fighting Hawks (8-12, 2-4 Summit League) and fifth in the last six meetings against the Bison (13-6, 4-1 Summit League).
 
Marlon Stewart poured in 22 points on 7-of-13 from the field to notch his 13th straight game in double figures and sits just nine points away from 1,000 in his career. The conference's top assist man finished with six dimes while also grabbing five rebounds and only committed two turnovers in 37 minutes.
 
Filip Rebraca continued his offensive dominance with 21 points and added eight rebounds to give UND a pair of 20-point scorers for the first time since the Nov. 7 opener vs. Crown College. The Serbian, who sits second in the Summit in field goal percentage, hit 8-of-11 shots from the field and sank all five of his shots from the charity stripe.
 
Billy Brown, Kienan Walter, and De'Sean Allen-Eikens added nine, eight, and seven points, respectively, to round out the starting five for UND, as Allen-Eikens was held under double figures for only the third time this season.
 
North Dakota State shot just under 50% from the field, including hitting seven of its 18 tries from distance, while UND was held below its season average at 45% and only connected on 5-of-20 (25%) from three.
 
Two of the nation's top free throw shooting teams were in full display on Sunday, with UND hitting 15-of-17 (88%) and NDSU sinking 20-of-23 (87%).
 
North Dakota won the rebounding battle, 34-31, including 11 on the offensive glass. The Hawks turned those 11 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points while limiting the Bison to just 10. Both teams finished with 40 points in the paint.
 
Both teams looked to set their tempo in the opening moments of the first half, with NDSU playing in the half court while UND looked to run. The Fighting Hawks started to get it going near the midway point of the first half with a 7-0 run to knot the game at 21.
 
UND tied the game at 23 once again, but NDSU knocked down a triple before Ward took over with three straight baskets to give the Bison a 34-27 lead with just under five minutes to play. The Hawks kept chipping away at the deficit, cutting it down to four on a pair of occasions, but a driving layup by Shahid at the buzzer gave the Bison a 41-34 lead at the break.
 
Out of halftime, UND came out with strong shooting to cut the lead down to four on a trio of occasions, but NDSU answered once again to push its advantage to six, 49-43, with just over six minutes gone in the second. The Bison started to get hot from distance and held UND without a field goal for nearly four minutes, with Shahid hitting a deep three in transition to give the hosts a 56-45 lead with 13:18 to play in the stanza.
 
Trailing by 11, UND turned to its freshman to get back into the game. Allen-Eikens got the run started with a driving basket off a sweet feed from Stewart before Gertautas Urbonavicius put his defender in a spin cycle for a bucket, grabbed an offensive, scored through contact, and sank the free throw to cut the deficit down to five, 60-55, with eight minutes to play.
 
NDSU withstood the push by the Hawks and answered once again with a spurt of its own to move back up by 10, 69-59, with just over four minutes to play.
 
The Bison were able to make their shots from the charity stripe to hold off the Hawks, 83-74.
 
North Dakota returns to action on Thursday evening for a showdown with Denver from the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center at 7 p.m.