GRAND FORKS, N.D. – North Dakota trailed Dixie State by 16 points late in the second half and trimmed the deficit down to five with just over three minutes to go, but saw its comeback attempt fall short in a 78-69 decision inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Saturday afternoon.
Paul Bruns led UND (4-9) with a season-high 21 points and six rebounds for his ninth double digit scoring performance of the season.
Ethan Igbanugo was next in scoring for the kelly green and white, tying his career-best scoring performance of 18 points, while connecting on five triples to go with four rebounds and three assists.
Tsotne Tsartsidze just missed a double-double, pouring in 13 points and corralling nine rebounds. He also rejected a career-high four shots.
Matt Norman chipped in eight points, trailed by Bentiu Panoam adding seven and Brian Mathews scoring two points to round out the scoring for UND. In total, six of the eight available Fighting Hawks scored points in the contest.
Hunter Schofield was the top scorer for DSU (7-5), throwing in a team-high 18 points.
Dixie State did most of its damage in the paint, outscoring North Dakota by a 44-26 margin down low. Both teams finished shooting under 50.0 percent, with the Trailblazers hitting at a clip of 48.4 percent and the Fighting Hawks knocking down 44.0 percent of their total shots.
North Dakota trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half and went on an 11-1 run to trim the deficit down to six at 71-65 with 2:29 remaining in the contest. A driving layup from Schofield with just under two minutes left proved to be the dagger and pushed the Trailblazer lead back to eight. Igbanugo connected on a trifecta on the next possession to get within five at 73-68, but the Hawks were never able to get closer after that point.
DSU went 5-for-6 at the charity stripe in the final minute to hold on for the 78-69 victory.
The Hawks started the game off with an 8-0 run and increased their lead to 19-9 by the under-12 media timeout, continuing its success from the previous game and connecting on five-of-six of their shots from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, the hot shooting from North Dakota would not last, as UND only made three triples on the next 22 attempts the remainder of the game.
After leading 19-9, UND gave up a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to allow DSU to knot the game up at 23-23. Dixie State was up 34-33 at the break. The Hawks were led by Bruns and Igbanugo at intermission with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The Trailblazers opened the second half on a 12-4 run to build its lead up to 46-37 with just under 16 minutes to go in the contest. By the 7:42 mark in the second half, DSU was shooting 61.9 percent in the half and built its lead up to as many as 16 points (60-44) with just under nine minutes to go.
Dixie State continued leading 70-54 with 5:57 to go before North Dakota came storming back with an 11-0 run to trim the deficit to 70-65. Bruns scored six of his 21 points in that 3:04-minute span.
The kelly green and white had momentum and energy before the Schofield driving bucket proved to be the dagger with 1:59 left to increase the Dixie State lead back to eight at 73-65.
North Dakota will open Summit League play on Wednesday with North Dakota State in a 7 p.m. (CT) tilt in Fargo.
