FARGO, N.D. – In a game that featured four lead changes and six ties, North Dakota fell 86-76 to North Dakota State (9-4, 1-0 SL) inside the SCHEELS Center on Wednesday night.

Paul Bruns notched the first double-double of his career for North Dakota (4-9, 0-1 SL), pouring in 27 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Of his 27 points, 18 of them came from three-point land.

Tsotne Tsartsidze was also in double figures with a career-high 18 points to go with seven boards.

Matt Norman and Ethan Igbanugo also finished with double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Grant Nelson was the leading scorer for North Dakota State with 24 points. In total, four Bison hit double figures in the contest.

North Dakota State did most of its damage down low with a 44-30 advantage. The Bison also outscored the Hawks in points off turnovers by an 11-3 margin. UND finished at 45.2 percent from the field, while NDSU went 50.8 percent from the floor.

The back and forth game began with NDSU up 21-9 early, propelled by a 14-2 run. UND bounced back over the next two minutes with an 11-0 run of its own, powered by back-to-back triples from Norman to even the game up at 23-23 with 12:22 left in the opening half.

Following a Bison bucket at 9:49, North Dakota went cold shooting and only hit one of its next six shots and found themselves trailing 32-25 with less than seven minutes left before intermission. The Hawks then went on a 7-0 run of their own later to trim the deficit to 39-34 before trailing 45-39 at the break.

At intermission, UND was hitting 40.5 percent of its shots, while NDSU was making 51.4 percent of their scoring attempts. Bruns led the kelly green and white in the opening half with 15, while Tsartsidze had 10.

North Dakota came storming out of the locker rooms with an 11-3 run, highlighted by Norman hitting a driving layup to claim UND's first lead of the game at 50-48 with 15 minutes remaining. The teams then traded buckets before Norman buried another triple to increase the Hawk lead at 53-50 with 13 minutes left.

The back and forth game continued and the Bison found themselves up 73-69 before Bruns hit a triple to bring the score back within one at 73-72 with just under five minutes remaining. NDSU continued hitting shots after that point and increased its lead to 81-74 with 2:34 remaining and then led 82-76 with just under a minute to go. The Bison netted a jumper and two free throws in the final minute to hold on for the 86-76 victory.

North Dakota will now return home to host South Dakota for the final game of the 2021 calendar year with a 7 p.m. (CT) tip on Thursday, Dec. 30, inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.