North Dakota at Colorado State || 11/4 (8:30 p.m.)
2nd Meeting; CSU leads series 1-0
Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The 120th season of North Dakota men's basketball, its 17th holding an NCAA Division I membership, begins on Monday night in Fort Collins, Colorado, as Colorado State awaits sixth-year head coach Paul Sather's Fighting Hawks in the season opener. Tip-off from inside Moby Arena is set for 8:30 p.m. 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 Hawks and the Rams will square off on ESPN+. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.

SERIES HISTORY
North Dakota and Colorado State meet for just the second time all-time with the first match up coming just past the New Year in 1964. The Rams got the best of UND in that January 3 meeting winning 73-44. 

LAST TIME OUT 
The Fighting Hawks hosted Concordia-Moorhead in an exhibition match up on October 30 inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. UND bested the Cobbers 89-56 to improve to 4-0 in exhibition contests under Sather adding the victory to preseason wins over Mayville State (2021-22), Waldorf (2022-23) and Northland College (2023-24).

A dozen Hawks scored on Wednesday night and all 13 dressed players saw time on the floor. Junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff delivered 20 first-half points and finished with 26 on 11-of-19 shooting. Sophomore guard Mier Panoam scored 16 points and added four rebounds, three assists, one block and a steal in 24 minutes of work. Senior forward Deng Mayar chipped in with ten points. Senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic led UND with seven rebounds, while classmate Brian Mathews and sophomore Mambourou Mara each recorded five. 

UND attempted 21 more shots than the Cobbers including 22 more from deep. The Hawks made 11 three pointers on the night. Concordia out-rebounded UND 39-38, but the Hawks finished at +16 in turnovers committing only four, while recording seven steals and finishing +22 in points off of turnovers. North Dakota tightened defensively over the final 6:30 of play as the Cobbers did not make a field goal over that stretch. 

STRONG OPENERS
North Dakota enters the 2024-25 season opener 85-34 all-time in the first game of the season since tipping off for the first time in 1904. A win on Monday evening would give UND its seventh in a season opener in the past ten years. Under Sather, who took to the Fighting Hawks' sideline for the first time in 2019-20, UND is 2-3 in season openers earning wins against Crown College (2019-20) and Incarnate Word (2022-23). 

MOUNTAIN WEST MEETING
A win over CSU would give the Fighting Hawks the program's first win over an opponent from the Mountain West Conference. Since competing as a Division I independent in its first year of 2008-09, the Fighting Hawks are winless in four tries against teams currently in the MWC. UND played Boise State in 2009-10 when the Broncos were in the late stages of their Western Athletic Conference tenure. The Hawks met Air Force at the CIT Postseason Tournament in 2010-11 (L, 67-77), played New Mexico (L, 57-85) the following season and most recently matched up against San Jose State (L, 51-76) during the 2021-22 campaign. Last season, the MWC sent six teams to the NCAA Tournament including the Rams who received an at-large bid as a No. 10 seed.

ONE LAST LOOK BACK
UND enters the 2024-25 season on the heels of an 18-win campaign a year ago that included a 10-6 record in league play to finish tied for second in the regular season standings. UND lost to Omaha in the final seconds in the quarterfinal round of the Summit League Tournament. The 18 wins, a Summit League best for UND, were the most in a single season for the program under Sather, the third time the Hawks reached a dozen or more in a season in his tenure and were the most by the Hawks since 2016-17.

Last season, The Hawks led the Summit League in steals per game (6.3) and ranked second in multiple categories including assist/turnover ratio (1.15), offensive rebounds per game (11.44), rebounds per game (36.59), scoring margin (+3.4) and three-point percentage defense (33.6). UND ranked third in the Summit League with a top 50 mark nationally in three-point attempts per game with 25.3. Additionally, the Hawks were disciplined ranking third in fouls per game at 15.2 which ranked 46th nationally among 351teams and took care of the basketball with a turnovers per game clip of 10.1 which rated fourth in the Summit and 43rd in DI.

SATHER'S SIXTH
Head coach Paul Sather enters year six leading the Hawks. He has won 61 games over his first five seasons in Grand Forks. He is one of eight coaches in program history to reach the 60-win mark. It was his 13th season of 15 or more wins in his coaching career which begins year No. 20 on Monday. In 19 seasons, with stops at Black Hills State, Northern State and UND, Sather has totaled 343 wins and has won more than 58% of his contests. 

SCOUTING THE RAMS
Colorado State enters season seven under head coach Niko Medved who owns a six-year record of 117-75 during his time in Fort Collins. The Rams are coming off of an NCAA Tournament appearance, the program's second under Medved, behind a 25-win season. CSU knocked off a 23-win Virginia team in a First Four matchup, before falling to No. 7 seed Texas in the Round of 64. 

The Rams were picked to a seventh-place finish in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) preseason media poll. CSU recieved 160 points in a poll that saw the six teams picked to finish above the Rams all receive a first-place vote.

Among the Rams' returners, and their lone starter back from last season's squad, for the 2024-25 season is preseason All-Mountain West selection Nique Clifford. A Colorado Springs native, Clifford is the Rams' top returner in points per game (12.2), rebounds per game (7.6), assists per game (3.0) and steals per game (1.4). He is CSU's top three-pointer shooter coming back after netting 42 attempts from deep and shooting 52.2% overall a season ago. Clifford recorded nine double doubles last season. 

CSU's roster of fifteen players included ten newcomers of which half are first-year collegians. Jalen Lake (6.0 ppg, 37.1% FG, 22.9 min/gm), Rashaan Mbemba (3.8 ppg, 59.2% FG, 10.9 min/gm) and Kyan Evans (1.7 ppg, 41.3% FG, 8.1 min/gm) all return after seeing action in 30+ games in 2023-24. 

A season ago, the Rams ranked seventh nationally in assist/turnover ratio (1.72) and assists per game (18.0), but lose the services of Isaiah Stevens who held top 30 individual marks in DI in those categories. Clifford led the MWC in defensive rebounds per game with 6.6 per game and ranked sixth in total steals with 50. Additionally, CSU ranked among the nation's top 65 at season's end in field goal percentage (20th, 48.4%), scoring margin (47th, 7.9), free throw percentage (50th, 75.2%), scoring defense (51st, 67.3%) and turnovers per game (61st, 10.4). 

UND BY THE NUMBERS
61 -The number of wins by head coach Paul Sather in his first five seasons in Grand Forks. Sather is the eighth coach in program history to reach the 60-win mark. 
55 -The percentage of scoring from last season that will not return for the Hawks in 2024-25. UND lost three of its top four scorers from a season ago.
43 -The number of starts made by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff in his first two years for the kelly green and white. He started all 32 games for UND last season.
18 -The number of wins for the Hawks in 2023-24 which is the most for the program in its Summit League membership and the most since the 2016-17 season.
8 -The number of double doubles delivered by Amar Kuljuhovic during his junior season. He scored in double figures 16 times and grabbed 10+ boards 12 times.

A UND WIN WOULD...
» Even the series standing with the Rams at 1-1
» Improve UND to 86-34 in season openers
» Be the seventh win in the last 10 openers
» Give the Hawks the program's first win over an MWC foe
» Be better than a loss 
 

— North Dakota Men's Basketball (@UNDmbasketball) October 31, 2024