GRAND FORKS, N.D. – North Dakota fell 79-53 to North Dakota State in Summit League men's basketball action inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Saturday afternoon.
Paul Bruns broke the freshman scoring record at UND (6-25, 2-16 SL) with 58 seconds before halftime, scoring his sixth point on a jumper and surpassing the freshman record of 454 points set by
De'Sean Allen-Eikens two seasons ago. Bruns finished with 11 points, moving the freshman record to 460.
Ethan Igbanugo led the Fighting Hawks with 16 points, followed by Bruns' 11.
Brady Danielson also netted 10 points, while
Bentiu Panoam finished just outside double figures with nine.
Brian Mathews corralled a team leading seven boards to go with two points.
Grant Nelson was the top scorer for NDSU (21-9, 13-5 SL), pouring in a game-high 17 points to go with seven rebounds. Jarius Cook, Tyree Eady and Rocky Kreuser each added 10 points while Kreuser also pulled down seven boards.
In the game, North Dakota State shot 50.9 percent, buried 11 triples and went 12-of-15 at the line. Comparatively, North Dakota hit 34.5 percent of its shots, knocked down six three-pointers and finished 9-of-15 at the charity stripe.
The Bison controlled the game in rebounds (41-28), points in the paint (30-22), bench scoring (27-12) and points off turnovers (10-4). The Fighting Hawks held a 6-4 edge in steals.
UND trailed 17-5 with 12:54 left in the opening period, before Igbanugo went on a 6-0 run to trim the deficit to 17-11 midway through the opening half.
With 2:53 remaining before halftime, Bruns knocked down his second shot and was two points away from owning the freshman record outright, while North Dakota trailed 29-21.
Bruns knocked down his sixth point on a jumper with 58 seconds before intermission to bring the deficit to 34-23. Panoam added a jumper four seconds before halftime to bring the tally to 34-25. In the opening 20 minutes, UND shot 38.5 percent and was led by Igbanugo with nine points. NDSU hit at 48.1 percent and the top scorer for the Bison was Nelson with nine.
The Bison started the second half on a 22-5 run to increase their lead to 56-30 with 12:40 left in the contest. NDSU led by as many as 28 points in the second half, having its lead balloon to 79-51 with 1:27 left in the game and Mathews scored the final points of the game with a jumper to bring the final score to 79-53.
