North Dakota vs. #6/7 Alabama || 12/18 (8:05 p.m.)
1st meeting
Grand Forks, N.D. (Betty Engelstad Sioux Center)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Nationally-ranked Alabama rolls into the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in a highly-anticipated matchup for North Dakota men's basketball. Sold out for several months, Wednesday's action expects to unfold in front of a capacity crowd as the highest ranked opponent ever visits Grand Forks. The Fighting Hawks welcome in the Crimson Tide as the former's non-conference slate nears an end with a Final Four opponent from a season ago. The action tips at 8:05 p.m. and 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 televised to a national audience on CBS Sports Network. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.

SERIES HISTORY
The hardwood meeting between the Fighting Hawks and Crimson Tide will be the first contest in the state of North Dakota for Alabama and it will be the first of three matchups between the programs with UND making trips to Tuscaloosa next season and in 2027-28. 

LAST TIME OUT
Senior forward Deng Mayar registered his second-straight double double with 14 points and ten rebounds and North Dakota received 20-plus point efforts from junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff and junior forward Dariyus Woodson, but UTSA showcased a 63% effort from three-point range with 15 made attempts and managed to fend off the late-surging Fighting Hawks at the stripe to claim a 95-85 win on Sunday afternoon inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
 
The second meeting between the two programs in less than 48 hours combined for 28 made three-point attempts, saw the Hawks win the rebounding battle again (+10) and the Roadrunners capitalize on points off turnovers (+17).
 
AGAINST UTSA: The Hawks matched their season-high in points scored with 85...UND netted a season high 13 shots from beyond-the-arc and matched their season high in attempts from range with 33...UND's success rate from deep (.394) is a season high...The Hawks struggled from the line connecting on only 14 of its 26 attempts, while UTSA, one of the top free throw shooting teams in the country, made 22 of 24...UND registered 17 offensive rebounds and has recorded a dozen or more in 11 of 12 games this season...It marked the sixth time that the Hawks have recorded 40+ rebounds this season...Mayar's double-double is the fifth by a Fighting Hawk this season and his second consecutive...Mayar's 14 points are the most by the senior in a UND uniform and he matched UND career-highs in field goals made (5), attempts (9), three-point field goals made (2) and three-point attempts (3)...Eaglestaff connected on five three-point attempts for the second time this season and for the ninth time in his career and his 13 attempts from deep on Sunday matched his career high...Eaglestaff crossed over the 20-point mark for the 13th time in his career and his two dozen points moves him 40 points away from 1,000 for his career...Woodson's career-high 23 points were a product of career-high marks in field goals made (9), attempts (19) and three-point attempts (13)...The Hawks put two players over 20 points for the first time this season...Eli King delivered a career-high six assists and filled in the box score with eight points, five rebounds, one block and a steal...Panoam recorded his third game this season with two steals and he added eight points, two assists and a rebound

IT JUST MEANS MORE
Alabama becomes the first Southeastern Conference opponent to trip to Grand Forks and the first Power 4 foe to make the trek since Kansas in 2001. That matchup, which was played inside Ralph Engelstad Arena and holds the attendance record (13,280) for a basketball game played in the Peace Garden State, served as a North Dakota return for Valley City native and current Pittsburg State head coach Jeff Boschee who played four seasons for the Jayhawks. 

The Fighting Hawks' history with SEC opponents is a thin one. UND traveled to Lexington to take on Kentucky in the 2018-19 season which was the first and until Wednesday only meeting against an SEC school. The Fighting Hawks first matched up against a Power 5 foe in year one of its DI membership as it traveled to College Station to take on current SEC program, then Big 12 member Texas A&M. UND made the trip again the following season and since the 2008-09 campaign, the Fighting Hawks have played a Power 5 opponent 25 times. 

Of those two dozen plus matchups, two have come against ranked teams: at #23 Iowa State in 2022-23 and at #10 Kentucky in 2018-19. Additionally, the Hawks have matched up against nationally-ranked mid-major powers in #9 Creighton (2023-24), #8/7 Gonzaga (2019-20) and #20 Marquette (2018-19).

A HOMECOMING OF SORTS
Former North Dakota State Bison Grant Nelson, who enters his second year with the Crimson Tide, returns to his home state where he played three seasons for the program in Fargo and was named the Summit League Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman and an all-league first team selection in his final season of 2022-23. A native of Devils Lake, North Dakota, which is a short 90-minute jaunt from Grand Forks, Nelson was a key figure in Alabama's Final Four run a season ago. In last season's national tournament, Nelson delivered a pair of double doubles and became the first player since 2008 (Kevin Love) to record 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and 4+ blocks in a Sweet 16 game or later.

1KULJUHOVIC
Senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic reached a personal milestone in Wednesday's loss at Utah Valley. The Waterloo, Iowa product crossed over 1,000 career points in his collegiate career with a 13-point night against the Wolverines. He recorded 624 points in two seasons at Lake Land College and currently has 386 points in 41 games as a Fighting Hawk. 

The scoring milestone isn't the only one in reach for Kuljuhovic as he is 156 rebounds shy of 1,000 for his career. He registered over 500 at LLC and currently has 333 as a Fighting Hawk with 108 coming on the offensive end of the floor. 

CLOSING IN
Junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff is 40 points away from 1,000 for his career. Currently with 960 points, Eaglestaff's scoring production to this point in his career has come on 42.2% shooting (339-of-803) from the floor and a 37.8% career three-point clip (170-of-450).

DAWN OF DARIYUS
The emergence of TJC transfer Dariyus Woodson has been critical for UND as conference play looms in the New Year. Woodson has combined for 44 points on nine made three pointers over the last two games. He has totaled 15 made shots and has added nine rebounds with an assist and a block. 

That effort over the weekend has helped the Baytown, Texas native develop into a threat from range as his 23 made threes are the second most among Hawks. Woodson is shooting 31.5% from beyond-the-arc. His 39.6% shooting effort from the floor is the second highest among Hawks with 100+ attempts from the floor. 

ROAD HAWKS
Friday's matchup at UTSA was the eighth outside the state of North Dakota for the Hawks in their first 11 games of the season. UND's meeting with Eastern Washington bookended a five-game stretch away from Grand Forks with three of the five standing as true road contests. The Hawks' west coast tip-off against Loyola Marymount marked the first time in program history that UND men's basketball contested in each of the four time zones of the continental United States prior to December.

Including UND's in-state neutral site affair against Dickinson State in Bismarck, the Hawks flocked nearly 11,000 miles during the first five weeks of the season. Forecasting the remaining travel prior to the New Year has the Hawks totaling over 16,200 miles during its non-conference slate.

The Hawks will get a reprieve from the road with three-straight home games prior to the Christmas holiday.

BUSY STRETCH
The Hawks are in the midst of a busy ten-day stretch prior to the Christmas holiday. North Dakota started with UVU in Orem (L, 57-80) and caps the stretch on Friday, December 20 against South Dakota Mines in Grand Forks. In between, the Hawks traveled to Texas-San Antonio (Dec. 13; L, 76-80), hosted Texas-San Antonio (Dec. 15; L, 85-95) and battle #6/7 Alabama (Dec. 18) inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. 

NOW BOARDING
Flights haven't been the only thing the Hawks have been boarding this season. The offensive glass has been controlled by UND in nine of the squad's 12 games and the Hawks have been outrebounded on the offensive glass just once. 

UND has grabbed 12 or more offensive rebounds in every game but its season opener at Colorado State. Eight Hawks have recorded 10+ offensive rebounds this season led by Amar Kuljuhovic's 37. Brian Mathews follows with 25, Eli King with 18 and Mier Panoam with 16. George Natsvishvili has registered 14 with seven coming in a career effort against Weber State. Deng Mayar has added 13 after back-to-back double double efforts and Treysen Eaglestaff went over 10 on the offensive glass on Friday at UTSA.

North Dakota ranks 8th nationally in offensive rebounds per game at 15.08; a mark that leads the Summit League. The squad's overall rebounding average of 39.75 leads the league and is in the top 60 nationally. Overall, the Hawks have outrebounded their opposition seven times this season. 

SEEING DOUBLE
A Hawk had yet to record a double-double of any kind entering the Big Sky-Summit Challenge on December 4. However, following a pair of matchups with Big Sky opposition, two different Hawks got in on the double-double production. The following week, two Hawks finished with double-doubles in the road loss at UTSA and two days later Deng Mayar joined Amar Kuljuhovic as Hawks with two such efforts so far this season. 

Amar Kuljuhovic produced 17 points and a dozen rebounds in a road loss at Eastern Washington. He added two assists and a block in 31 minutes. It was his ninth double-double as a Hawk. 

Three nights later, Natsvishvili played two dozen minutes and erupted for a dozen points and ten rebounds in a career night for the sophomore and first-year Hawk. He the contest having scored just seven points with 11 rebounds across seven games totaling 60 minutes.  

Against the Roadrunners, Kuljuhovic produced his tenth double-double as a Hawk with ten points and 11 rebounds with nine on the offensive glass. Deng Mayar matched the effort with ten points and 11 boards of which seven were on the defensive end of the floor and two nights later Mayar recorded a second double double with 14 points and ten rebounds.

TIP TOP TREY
Bismarck native Treysen Eaglestaff is among the top scorers in the Summit League as the calendar moves into December. He is averaging 18.6 points per game which rates inside the top 55 nationally and leads the Summit League. His 223 total points are the second most in the league, a top 25 scoring mark in the country and his scoring effort comes behind a top seven field goal percentage among Summit shooters at 42.4%.

Eaglestaff has scored in double-figures in all 12 games this season crossing over the 20-point mark in half of those including twice in the past three games. He finished his sophomore campaign reaching the double-figure scoring mark in the final six games for an active streak of 18 games with 10+ points. 

For his career, Eaglestaff has 48 games in double-figure scoring with 13 games at 20+ points. He facilitates too leading UND with 27 assists. Thirty-six times in his UND career, Eaglestaff has made no fewer than three three-point shots. He's bottomed three shots from range eight times this season and in Sunday's action he netted five for the ninth time in his career and for the second time this season. His 33 total three-point makes rank third in the Summit League and his 2.75 per game rate second and are among the top 100 three-point shooters in the country.

The Bismarck native is eyeing a move up the program record books as he is currently eighth in career three-pointers with 170; 11 back of becoming the program's D1 leader in made three pointers among players that played their entire career in UND's D1 era. Additionally, Eaglestaff moved into third all-time on the Hawks' D1 three-point attempt list. Eaglestaff continues his climb up the scoring charts aiming to move into the top 40 as he sits 40 points away from 1,000 for his career which would make him the 39th player in program history to reach the mark. 

In two games in Cancun, Eaglestaff led UND with 16.5 ppg on 35.7% shooting. He added seven rebounds, two assists and a steal to earn selection to the Cancun Challenge All-Tournament team. 

Eaglestaff's effort in wins against Dickinson State and Utah Valley (24.0 ppg, 51.9% FG, 16-of-17 FT, 7 asst., 5 rebs., 1 stl.) earned him the fourth Summit League Peak Performer of the Week award of his career. His 31 points in the win against UVU are the most for Eaglestaff inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center and are the most by a Hawk at home since Marlon Stewart went for 35 against North Dakota State (2/22/2020). 

He was the first Summit League player to reach 30 points in a game this season and his season-high 31 are the second-most in the league this season.

MORE MAYAR
Deng Mayar enters Wednesday's matchup against Alabama on the heels of back-to-back double double efforts in a weekend home-and-home with UTSA. In two games against the Roadrunners, Mayar averaged 27.1 minutes and shot 53.3% (8-of-15) from the floor with a 50% (3-of-6) rate from three-point range. He went 5-of-7 from the line to average 12.0 points over the pair of contests. Mayar led UND in rebounding with 10.5 boards per game, including the second-most offensive rebounds at eight. 

PANOAM, GET TO KNOW HIM
Sophomore transfer guard Mier Panoam has provided a big spark for the Hawks in year one in Grand Forks. Against the Roadrunners, Panoam recorded 14 points, nine assists, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks as he averaged over 31 minutes per game. In San Antonio, he recorded a season-high seven assists.

The Alaska native has scored in double figures in seven of 12 games. Panoam has netted 15 or more in four games including three games with 19 or more points with a career-high 22 points in the home win over Weber State.

His performance against the Wildcats saw the first-year Hawk match a season-high in shots made (7) and set a new career-high in free throws made (8). He recorded six rebounds in the win, his fourth such game this season, and eight times this season he has crossed over five boards in a game.

Panoam is second in scoring with 11.3 points per game and in steals with 11. He leads the team in blocked shots with seven and ranks third in rebounding with 56. He ranks fourth on the team in offensive rebounds (16). He has recorded 22 assists and is one of four Hawks averaging 27 or more minutes per game.

ELI'S EVERYWHERE
There's plenty to read when it comes to an Eli King stat line. The junior guard has been everywhere and done a little bit of everything for North Dakota in 12 games this season.

King has played 30 minutes in four-straight games which started with a career-high 37 minutes in the home win over Weber State. In that victory, the Caledonia, Minnesota native scored in double figures for the second time this campaign with a season-high 13 points to go along with two rebounds, two steals and an assist. The double-figure scoring effort was the 11th of his UND career.

In 350 minutes, the second-most among Hawks, King is third on the team in offensive rebounds with 18, which included six against Notre Dame, and owns the second-highest rebounding average at 5.1. He has eight games this season with 5+ rebounds. He holds a team-high mark in steals (15) and paces UND in offensive fouls drawn this season with ten.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON TIDE
The Crimson Tide are as advertised. Alabama crosses over Peace Garden state lines for the first time in program history with an 8-2 record overall and winners of their past two games. Alabama's losses came in a nine-point decision at #13 Purdue and in a bucket difference to Oregon in Las Vegas. Among the Tide's victories are a 13-point win against #25 Illinois, a five-point win vs. #6 Houston in Las Vegas and a decisive 15-point difference on the road at #20 North Carolina. 

Alabama, preseason favorites in the SEC and preseason top five nationally, is led by sixth-year head coach Nate Oats who has notched 125 victories during his time in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide's Mark Sears was named the preseason SEC Player of the Year.

Alabama carries one of the nation's top scoring averages in the country at 88.6 points per game which rates fifth nationally and third in the SEC. The Crimson Tide shoot 46.7% from the floor, 31.7% from the beyond-the-arc and 73.2% from the stripe. Alabama holds top 15 marks in free throw attempts (26.5) and free throw makes (19.4). 

The Crimson Tide boasts one of the country's top rebounding efforts in addition to perimeter defense. Alabama's 43.7 rebounds per game rank sixth nationally, while its 30.4 defensive rebounds rank eighth. The Tide's three-point defense effort of 28.1% is the inside the top 25 nationally. On the offensive end, Alabama shoots over 30 shots from deep per game which ranks 16th in DI, while the near 10 makes from range ranks inside the top 60. 

Sears leads four players with double-figure scoring averages at 17.5 points per game which is a top 90 scoring mark nationally. Sears' 58 free throws lead the SEC and rank inside the top 20 nationally. Grant Nelson paces the Crimson Tide with 8.0 rebounds per game, 6.2 defensive boards per game and 80 total rebounds. All three marks are top five in the SEC. True freshman Labaron Philon trails Sears in assist-to-turnover ratio, assists and assists per game. Both players rank in the top 12 in the SEC in assists per game and total assists and their ratio marks are inside the top 25. 

UND BY THE NUMBERS
40- The number of points needed by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff to reach 1,000 for his career. The Bismarck native would be the 39th player in program history to reach the mark and the 12th player in the program's DI era to accomplish the scoring feat.
25- The number of Power 5 opponents faced by North Dakota in its Division I membership (2008-09) prior to Wednesday's matchup. It will be the third top 25 team from a Power 5 conference to face the Hawks and the sixth overall.
8- UND's national rank in offensive rebounds/game. The squad's mark of 15.08 leads the Summit League. UND has grabbed a dozen or more offensive rebounds in 11 of 12 games this season. The most games with 12+ OREB under Sather is 17 last season.
8- The current career rank of junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff's 170 made trifectas. He is second in made three-point attempts among Hawks who played their entire career at the DI level. He is 15 away from fifth all-time.
5- The number of double-doubles produced this month. Deng Mayar enters Wednesday with consecutive double-double efforts. Amar Kuljuhovic recorded such efforts against EWU and UTSA. George Natsvishvili earned his first against Weber State.

A UND WIN WOULD
» Snap the Hawks' second three-game losing streak
» Be the first over a Power 5 foe since 2019 when UND beat Nebraska 75-74 in Lincoln
» Be the first win over an SEC opponent
» Be better than a loss