SAN JOSE, Calif. – North Dakota trailed 27-26 at the break, but San Jose State (4-3) won the second half by a tally of 49-25 and it proved to be the difference in the 76-51 decision at the Provident Credit Union Event Center on Friday night.
Mitchell Sueker led the Hawks (3-6) and just missed out on a double-double with 16 points to go with nine rebounds.
Caleb Nero and
Paul Bruns were next in scoring for UND with nine and eight points, respectively. Bruns recorded a team-high three steals.
Tsotne Tsartsidze had the lone shot rejection for North Dakota while chipping in seven points.
Brian Mathews added six points and
Brendan Howard rounded out the scoring for the Hawks with five.
Bentiu Panoam dished out a team leading three assists.
Despite only trailing by one at the break, a 20-4 Spartan run in just under seven minutes midway through the second half proved to be the difference in the game, putting SJSU up 52-32. San Jose State continued having shots fall and led by as many as 28 points with the score at 73-45 with 3:11 left in the contest, eventually finishing with the 76-51 victory.
After intermission, San Jose State hit 19 shots from the field to North Dakota's six. In the game, the Hawks shot 26.3 percent and went 16-of-22 from the charity stripe. Comparatively, the Spartans scored 47.6 percent of their shots while hitting 11 three-pointers. SJSU finished with a 44-38 edge in rebounds and 7-1 advantage in blocks.
Sueker took over the first way midway through the half, finishing the first 20 minutes with 12 points and seven rebounds. Nero made a shot from deep to give UND the 3-0 lead and UND trailed 15-5 with 11 minutes left in the half before Sueker poured in eight straight points to trim the deficit to 15-13. After a Spartan make, Sueker added four more points to knot the game up at 17-17 with just under six minutes left in the half.
San Jose State used a 5-0 run to go up 22-17, but Mathews went 2-for-2 at the line and then back-to-back makes from Nero and a jumper from Tsartsidze gave North Dakota the lead at 23-22 with 1:54 before the break. It was UND's first lead since going up 3-0. The Spartans buried two more buckets to reclaim the lead at 27-23 and Bruns knocked down a triple right before intermission to give the Hawks momentum and head into the locker room trailing by one at 27-26.
North Dakota continues its stay in the Golden State with California Baptist on Tuesday night. Opening tip between the Hawks and Lancers is scheduled for 9 p.m. (CT).
