VERMILLION, S.D. – North Dakota fell 71-58 in Summit League men's basketball action to South Dakota inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Complex late Saturday afternoon.
Bentiu Panoam led the Fighting Hawks (4-18, 0-9 SL) with 19 points, 17 of them coming in the second half alone. He also recorded one steal, went 3-for-3 from deep and knocked down both his free throw attempts.
Paul Bruns was next in scoring for UND with 17 points, including an 8-of-8 performance at the charity stripe.
Brady Danielson led the team on the glass with eight boards to go with four points, while
Matt Norman paced the team with three assists.
Tsotne Tsartsidze just missed out on double figures with eight points while also adding a block.
Tasos Kamateros was the top scorer in the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead South Dakota (13-8, 6-4 SL). Four other Coyotes finished in double figures.
In the game, the Coyotes had advantages on the glass (36-22), second chance points (16-4) and rebounds (33-27). North Dakota shot 37.0 percent (17-of-46) and 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) at the charity stripe while also adding five trifectas. South Dakota finished hitting at an even 50.0 percent (29-of-58), with eight triples and five made free throws.
The Fighting Hawks went up 4-0 early with baskets from Tsartsidze and Bruns and then the teams traded a basket before the Coyotes went on a 13-0 run to go up 15-6 by the second media timeout.
With just under three minutes left in the half, South Dakota had built a 19-pont lead after extending its run to 24-7 over the last 13:09.
North Dakota trailed 39-18 at intermission. In the opening period,
Paul Bruns was the leading scorer for the Hawks with eight points, including 4-of-4 at the charity stripe. Tasos Kamateros was the leading Coyote with 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting with three triples. UND shot 25.0 percent, while USD was hitting at a 51.6 percent clip.
Panoam provided a spark in the first minutes of the second half, scoring seven of the nine UND points by the first media timeout to trim the deficit to 43-27.
By the 13:03 point in the second half, North Dakota was in the bonus and went on an 18-2 run shortly after with eight points from Panoam, four points from Tsartsidze, four free throw makes from
Reid Grant and two free throws from Danielson over that stretch to cut the deficit down to 58-47 with six minutes left in the game.
Mason Archambault knocked down a three to end the North Dakota run and extend the South Dakota lead to 61-47 on the next possession before the teams started trading baskets in the final six minutes. With the Coyotes holding a 13-11 edge in points in the final possessions, USD held on for the 71-58 victory.
North Dakota will return home to host South Dakota State inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center at 7 p.m. (CT) on Monday. The game will be carried by Midco Sports and available on the air on the Home of Economy Radio Network.
