GRAND FORKS, N.D. – In a game that featured three ties and both teams hauling in 40 rebounds, South Dakota State (20-4, 11-0 SL) held on to escape the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center with a 70-64 win over North Dakota on Monday night.
Reid Grant led UND (4-19, 0-10 SL) with a season-high 15 points, 10 of them coming in the second half alone. He also paced the offense with a team-high four assists.
Bentiu Panoam and
Paul Bruns were next for the Fighting Hawks with 13 points apiece. Bruns added 11 in the second half while Panoam chipped in nine to go with two steals.
Brady Danielson netted seven points and shared a team-high two steals with Panoam, while also pulling in eight boards.
Brady Scheierman was the top scorer for SDSU with 24 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and one block.
Charlie Easley and Zeke Mayo were the only other Jackrabbits to finish in double figures with 13 and 12, respectively.
North Dakota finished the night shooting 34.4 percent, while knocking down six triples and going 16-of-18 at the charity stripe for 88.9 percent. South Dakota State finished hitting at 44.3 percent with five three-point makes and an 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) performance at the line.
SDSU never led by more than 11 points and held the edge in points off turnovers (11-8), fast break points (7-4), blocks (4-2) and points in the paint (34-28). North Dakota won the statistical categories of assists (9-8) and bench scoring (21-5).
The Jackrabbits led 9-4 by the first media break and the Fighting Hawks evened the score up at 9-9 shortly after a 5-0 run.
Midway through the first half SDSU led 15-11 before going on a 9-2 scoring run to increase the lead to 22-13 with 7:12 left in the half. Following that point, Danielson and Panoam converted trifectas on the following two possessions to close the gap to 24-19 with 4:48 before halftime.
North Dakota outscored South Dakota State 11-6 in the final five minutes, highlighted by Grant drawing a foul and knocking down both his free throws with two seconds left before intermission. The Hawks trailed 30-27 at the break.
In the first 20 minutes, both teams had four second chance points and the UND bench was outscoring the SDSU reserves by a 10-2 margin. Grant led the Fighting Hawks with six, while Mayo and Scheierman both had 10 apiece for the Jackrabbits.
South Dakota State opened the second half with an 11-4 run, with Douglas Wilson scoring seven points in that stretch to bring the tally to 41-31 SDSU with 15:33 remaining. After that point, the Jackrabbits never led by more than 10.
By the 9:09 mark, both teams had scored 18 points since intermission and the Jackrabbits were clinging to a 48-45 lead.
Over the next seven minutes, SDSU had pushed its lead back to 65-58 when the Hawks went on a 7-3 run, powered by a Bruns triple and layups from both Grant and
Tsotne Tsartsidze. A beautiful pass from Grant to Tsartsidze set up the final basket in that run to bring the score to 68-64 with 31 seconds left.
With six seconds left, Easley was fouled and made both his free throws to allow SDSU to hold on for the 70-64 victory.
North Dakota will continue its homestand on Thursday with Denver at 7 p.m. (CT). The game will be carried by Midco Sports and aired on the Home of Economy Radio Network.
