North Dakota vs. Utah Valley || 11/14 (Noon)
9th meeting; UVU leads series 5-3
Grand Forks, North Dakota (BESC)
FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - North Dakota men's basketball faces a quick turnaround for its much anticipated home opener on Thursday as former Great West Conference foe Utah Valley ventures back to Grand Forks for a noon tip-off inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. It's Kids Day inside the BESC and hundreds of UND's biggest fans will be in attendance for the afternoon affair. Fans can follow the action live with UND men's basketball radio play-by-play voice Paul Ralston on KSNR 100.3 FM The Cat or on the iHeart Radio app, while the action will be streamed on Midco Sports and the Summit League Network. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.
SERIES HISTORY
UND and UVU hit the hardwood for the ninth time on Thursday afternoon. UVU leads the all-time series 5-3. It will be the first match up since a November 2018 tilt in Orem which the host Wolverines won 74-68. UND is 1-2 against Utah Valley at home with the Hawks' last win in the series coming at home on March 2, 2012. North Dakota edged its former Great West Conference foe 57-56. Twice the two sides have played bonus basketball with UVU beating UND 83-75 on November 25, 2017 in Grand Forks. That was a single overtime affair and a walk-in-the-park meeting compared to the January 20, 2011, matchup that went quadruple overtime with the Wolverines surviving the host Hawks 107-96 in what amounted to a third twenty minute session. It remains the longest OT game in program history.
LAST TIME OUT
The Fighting Hawks battled Dickinson State for the eighth time on Tuesday night in the inaugural playing of the Capital City Classic from inside the Bismarck Event Center. Four Fighting Hawks finished in double-figure scoring led by Bismarck native
Treysen Eaglestaff's game-high 17 points and the Hawks dominated the glass finishing at +18 behind 50 total rebounds to cruise past the Blue Hawks 85-54 and remain unbeaten against their in-state opposition.
Eleven Hawks played for a dozen minutes or more in the win, while twelve of the 14 Hawks that touched the floor finished in the scoring column. UND hit 45.5% of its shots including seven of its 23 attempts from range. The 50 rebounds mark just the second time under Sather that the Hawks have reached the half-century mark in boards. UND's game-high under Sather's leadership came in his first season of 2019-20 when the Hawks grabbed 54 against Crown College.
POSTER CHILD
Sophomore forward
Mambourou Mara's baseline slam against Dickinson State garnered national attention as the play ranked #2 on Tuesday night's SportsCenter Top 10. Mara took flight after receiving a helper from
Reggie Thomas along the baseline and finished with a rim rocker.
JUST TREY THINGS
Junior
Treysen Eaglestaff played in 67th career game for North Dakota in his hometown of Bismarck. For the 38th time donning a UND uni, Eaglestaff finished in double-figure scoring as he led the Hawks with 17 points behind an 8-for-8 effort from the stripe.
STREAKING FROM RANGE
The Hawks have connected on made 12 of its 39 attempts from three-point range 80 minutes into the 2024-25 season. UND's streak of three or more made three-point attempts in a game stands at 112. Under Sather, the Hawks have made three or more three-point attempts in 154 of the 157 games that he has led UND in. Overall, North Dakota has made a three-point shot in 191 consecutive games.
HAWK DEBUTS
Three more Fighting Hawks hit the floor for the first time in the kelly green and white on Tuesday night in Bismarck. Redshirt freshman and Bismarck native
Anthony Doppler played a dozen-plus minutes and finished with two rebounds and a steal in his collegiate debut. Classmate
Matthew Bothun played over 6:30 minutes scoring his first career basket, while freshman
George Natsvishvili saw 16 minutes of court time to finish with two points, two rebounds, two assists and a block.
Sophomore
Mier Panoam and juniors
Reggie Thomas and
Dariyus Woodson competed for the first time in kelly green and white in the season opener at Colorado State. Panoam scored ten points in 24 minutes and added five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. Woodson operated in a team-high 29 minutes scoring seven points with five rebounds. Thomas played two dozen minutes adding two rebounds, an assist and one block to six points.
Redshirt freshmen
Zach Kraft and
Ryan Erikson made their Fighting Hawks debuts against Colorado State. The North Dakota natives, Kraft calls Grand Forks home and Erikson hails from Bismarck, both took the floor against the Rams logging the first minutes of their collegiate careers. Kraft checked in with 5:42 remaining in the game, while Erikson entered at the 1:46 mark.
BALLIN' BACK HOME
In addition to Eaglestaff's effort on Tuesday night inside an arena that has seen him take the floor an estimated 17 times throughout his prep career, another Bismarck native felt right at home back home. Second-year Hawk
Ryan Erikson made the most of a dozen minutes of work connecting on 4-of-9 shooting for eight points, of which included his first career points, to go along with four rebounds, an assist and one steal.
SCOUTING THE WOLVERINES
Utah Valley is unbeaten in two trips to the hardwood this season. The Wolverines beat Division II Western Colorado by 35 in the season opener and are coming off of a 29-point win against UTEP. Thursday afternoon's match up will be the first road game of the season for UVU.
The Wolverines are led by second-year head coach Todd Phillips. Phillips, who is in year six on the UVU staff, led the Wolverines to a DI program-best 16 wins last seasons.
Utah Valley was tabbed to a fifth-place finish in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.
DSU's 16-player roster includes players from seven states and Alberta. Half of the roster is seniors with 11 of the 16 student-athletes upperclassmen.
Kose Egbule, who is averaging a team-high 32.3 minutes per game, leads the Blue Hawks with 15.0 ppg and is second in rebounding at 5.8. Junior Cordell Stinson follows with 14.8 ppg and leads DSU on the glass grabbing 9.8 rebounds per contest. Senior Aidan Fishell is the top three-point shooter, hitting 57.1% from range, for a Blue Hawks squad that shoots over 25 three-point shots per game at a success rate of 32.1%. Fishell and Stinson are both averaging 2.5 assists per game, while senior John Evans is averaging a steal per game.
FOLLOW THE FLOCK
Engage with live updates during all UND men's basketball games by following @UNDmbasketball on X. Fans can also follow the Fighting Hawks on Facebook and Instagram. Up-to-the-minute news, stats and more is always available at www.FightingHawks.com.
PREVIOUS NOTES UPDATE
-North Dakota's win over Dickinson State improves the Hawks to 8-0 in the series and the program's record in Bismarck to 2-2 since the start of the 2000-01 season.
-The DSU win was the ninth neutral site win for the Hawks in Sather's tenure as that record since the 2019-20 season moved above .500 at 9-8.
-Sather improves to 8-5 all-time against Dickinson State.
-North Dakota moved to 85-35 all-time in the first game of the season since tipping off for the first time in 1904. UND moved to 2-4 in season openers under Sather.
-UND is 0-2 all-time against Colorado State and 0-5 against teams from the increasingly tough Mountain West Conference.
UND BY THE NUMBERS
50 -The number of rebounds that the Hawks grabbed in Tuesday night's Capital City Classic victory. It marked just the second time that UND reached that mark in glass cleaning under Sather and was the most since 54 against Crown College (11/7/19).
26 -The number of times an opponent, under HC
Paul Sather, has shot 23.5% or worse from beyond-the-arc. Dickinson State made just four of its 28 attempts from range on Tuesday night. In two games, foes are shooting .178 from deep.
4 -The number of overtimes that UND and UVU played to in a 2011 meeting in Grand Forks. It remains the longest game in UND history. The Wolverines topped the Fighting Hawks 107-96 in quadruple overtime.
4 -The number of Fighting Hawks that scored their first collegiate points in Tuesday night's win over Dickinson State.
Ryan Erikson (8 pts),
Zach Kraft (3),
George Natsvishvili (2) and
Matthew Bothun (2) all netted their first career baskets.
2 -The number that
Mambourou Mara's posterizing slam against Dickinson State was assigned on Tuesday night's SportsCenter Top 10.
Reggie Thomas assisted Mara along the baseline and the latter finished emphatically at the rim.
A UND WIN WOULD...
» Push the Hawks above .500 at 2-1
» Improve UND to 4-5 all-time against Utah Valley
» Improve the Hawks' record in home openers since becoming a DI program (2008-09) to 13-4
» Be the 35th home win for the Hawks under Sather
» Be better than a loss
