GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Paul Bruns buried a deep triple to put North Dakota up 80-67 with 2:30 left, and the Fighting Hawks went 10-of-14 at the charity stripe in the final minutes to defeat Omaha by a tally of 92-85 on Saturday afternoon inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Bruns led NoDak (5-20, 1-11 SL) with 21 points, pouring in 16 points in the second half while hitting 50.0 percent (6-of-12) of his shots to go with four triples and a team-high six rebounds. He also finished 5-of-6 at the free throw line.
Ethan Igbanugo was next in scoring with 17 points, including eight made free throws.
Tsotne Tsartsidze and
Bentiu Panoam each poured in 15 points, with Tsartsidze coming alive with 11 second-half points alone.
Caleb Nero was the fifth Hawk to net double figures with 12 points while shooting 4-of-7 and accounting for two steals.
Frankie Fidler was the top scorer for the Mavericks (4-20, 3-10 SL), going 8-of-9 at the charity stripe and 11-of-13 from the floor for 35 points. Fidler also pulled down five boards and recorded three steals and three assists. Marco Smith was the only other player for Omaha to hit double-digits with 13 points.
In the game, North Dakota hit 50.9 percent of its shots, 14 trifectas and went 20-of-27 at the free throw line. Comparatively, Omaha shot 49.2 percent, eight triples and finished 17-of-23 at the stripe. The Fight Hawks held a 34-33 edge in rebounds and held a 31-18 advantage in bench scoring. The Mavericks won the battle down low with a 32-26 edge in points in the paint.
North Dakota led for the entire second half and although Omaha closed the gap to five and six points on a handful of occasions in the second half, Bruns knocked down a deep triple with 2:30 remaining to extend the Fighting Hawk lead back up to 13 at 80-67.
The Fighting Hawks put in 10 of 14 free throws in the final minutes to earn the 92-85 victory, the final minute highlighted by a Panoam dunk to make the game 87-78 with 29 seconds left.
At intermission, North Dakota led 44-31 with Panoam leading the Hawks with 10 points. Fidler only had seven of his eventual 35 points in the first 20-minute period. The Hawks hit at 53.3 percent in the opening stanza, while the Mavericks were shooting 41.9 percent.
NoDak built its lead with an 8-0 run to claim its first lead of the game at 18-15 with 11:57 left in the first half. Over the final five minutes of the opening period, the Hawks put together a 10-1 run to increase its lead to 44-31, with the most impressive play in that run coming from
Reid Grant diving into the North Dakota bench for a rebound and then hustling down the floor to dish out an assist to Igbanugo for a triple.
Following intermission, Omaha went on a 10-2 run to trim the deficit to 46-41 with 17:24 left in the game. Four minutes later, a Nero steal and reverse layup to go with an and-one free throw make pushed the North Dakota lead back to 62-54.
The Mavericks trimmed the deficit to five and six points a few times in the second half until the Bruns trifecta put the game out of reach at 80-67.
North Dakota will now visit St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday for a 7 p.m. (CT) tip. The game will be carried by Tommies All-Access and aired on the Home of Economy Radio Network.
