North Dakota at Eastern Washington || 12/4 (8 p.m.)
15th meeting; Series tied 7-7
Cheney, Washington (Reese Court)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - North Dakota's early-season road swing continues on Wednesday as the Hawks are in Cheney, Washington, for the first contest in the second-playing of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. Tip-off against Eastern Washington is scheduled for 8 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 action will be available on ESPN+. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.

SERIES HISTORY
UND and EWU meet for the 15th time in a series that is deadlocked at 7-7. The Eagles have won four-straight games against the Fighting Hawks and four-straight at home. The Hawks were victorious in five of the first six games of the series which began with a home-and-home during the 1981 and 1982 seasons. The matchup renewed in the 2012-13 season when North Dakota joined the Big Sky conference. UND won the first four meetings as conference foes, but has finished in the win column in only two of the previous eight matchups. The Hawks are looking for their first win in Cheney since January 30, 2014. 

LAST TIME OUT
The Fighting Hawks are looking to rebound after going winless at the Cancun Challenge in Mexico. UND suffered losses to Bethune-Cookman (L, 67-79) and Southeastern Louisiana (L, 60-76) in the Hawks' first-ever meetings between both programs. The Hawks finished even in rebounding for the international stint (38.0 - 38.0), -9 in turnovers (31.0 - 22.0) and allowed the two foes to shoot a combined 44% from three-point range (15-for-34) and 46% (55-for-119) from the floor. 

A slow start out of the intermission plagued UND in its Cancun opener against Bethune-Cookman. A 46-41 Wildcats advantage at the break grew to a dozen points as BCU, representing the Southwestern Athletic Conference, used a 12-0 run across both halves to set in motion a final twenty minutes that was controlled by BCU in a 79-67 victory. The Hawks cooled off from the floor in the second half, connecting on only a pair of three-point attempts in 15 tries from deep. The Wildcats' lead never grew to more than 13 points in the second half, but the Hawks only managed to get as close as eight points on three occasions following BCU's aforementioned run post break.

Against Southeastern Louisiana, North Dakota rallied midway through the second half erasing a ten-point deficit with an 11-1 run, but the Lions answered with a 12-0 sequence as part of a 23-7 run over the final 9:24 of action to beat the Hawks 76-60.

AGAINST BCU: BCU's 38.9% effort from three-point range is the best against the Hawks, who entered as the nation's leader in perimeter defense, this season and the highest rate an opponent has hit from deep...For the Hawks, the squad's 22.6% clip from three-point range is its lowest effort of the season...Eaglestaff has made three shots from range in each of his last four games with his career total of such games growing to 32...UND finished with seven steals for the third time this season and recorded three or more blocks for the fifth time in six games...The Hawks finished +6 in rebounding marking a positive margin in a game for the fourth time this season...Junior guard Mier Panoam followed with a career-best 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting...Senior forwards Amar Kuljuhovic and Brian Matthews both corralled a team-leading eight rebounds...BCU finished +5 in points off of turnovers and +10 in paint points

AGAINST SLU: Kuljuhovic led UND with 14 points and seven rebounds and matched his career high in assists with four...Eaglestaff followed with 13 points, two rebounds and an assist and Woodson added 11 points, two rebounds, two blocks and a steal...Thomas recorded personal UND-best marks in rebounds (3), steals (2) and field goals made (3)...Woodson notched personal UND-highs in field goal attempts (11) and three-point field goals attempts (9)...The Hawks struggled from deep shooting 21.2% (7-for-33), while allowing the Lions to shoot 50% (8-for-16) from beyond-the-arc...SLU's Sam Hines Jr. led the Lions with 17 points and Brody Rowbury followed with 13 points and eight rebounds...UND was outrebounded 37-30 and outscored inside 26-18

ROAD HAWKS
Wednesday's matchup against Eastern Washington is the sixth outside the state of North Dakota for the Hawks in eight games this season. UND's meeting with EWU book ends 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 and Wednesday's matchup in Cheney, the Hawks have flocked nearly 11,000 miles during the first five weeks of the season. 

BIG SKY-SUMMIT CHALLENGE
Year two of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge tips off Wednesday across the two leagues. North Dakota aims for its first win in the challenge after dropping a home contest with Northern Colorado (L, 87-97) and a road tilt at Northern Arizona (L, 73-74) in last season's inaugural matchups. The Hawks will host Weber State on Saturday to wrap up the two-game challenge. Last season, the Summit League won the challenge by 102 points. 

TIP TOP TREY
Bismarck native Treysen Eaglestaff is the top scorer in the Summit League through the first month of the season. He is averaging 18.4 points per game which rates 61st nationally. His 129 total points are the fourth most in the league and his scoring effort comes behind the third-highest field goal percentage among Summit shooters at 45.3%. 

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 has scored in double-figures in all seven games this season crossing over the 20-point mark three times. For his career, Eaglestaff has 42 games in double-figure scoring with ten games at 20+ points. He facilitates too leading UND with 14 assists.

Thirty-two times in his UND career, Eaglestaff has made no fewer than three three-point shots. He's bottomed three shots from range four times this season. His 16 total three-point makes rank seventh in the Summit League and his 2.29 per game rate third. 

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.

PANOAM, GET TO KNOW HIM
Sophomore transfer guard Mier Panoam is enjoying a solid start to his first season in Grand Forks. The Alaska native has scored in double figures in five of seven games with a season-high 19 points against Bethune-Cookman in Cancun. 

He leads the team in blocked shots with five, ranks third in rebounding with 5.6 per game and has recorded five or more in six of seven contests and has grabbed seven or more three times. He ranks second on the team in offensive rebounds (13). Additionally, Panoam ranks second in offensive rebounds. He has recorded seven assists and five steals is one of four Hawks averaging 25 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 seven games this season.

In 197 minutes, the second-most among Hawks, King is second on the team in offensive rebounds with 13, which included six against Notre Dame, and owns the second-highest rebounding average at 5.7. In his past five games, King has recorded no fewer than five rebounds. He holds a team-high mark in steals (8) and paces UND in offensive fouls drawn this season with seven.

He scored in double figures for the first time this season, and for the tenth time in his career at UND, with ten points in the road win at LMU.

NODAK NOTABLES
*Despite struggling to protect the perimeter in Cancun, the Hawks still rank inside the DI top 20 in three-point field goal defense with a mark of 26.2% which rates 16th nationally and leads the Summit League. The mark ranks sixth 
*The Hawks hold an offensive rebound rate that is inside the DI top 40 at 37th and leads the Summit League at 13.86. Four Hawks have recorded 13 or more offensive rebounds led by Amar Kuljuhovic's 17 which gives him 100 offensive boards in his UND career.
*That effort on the offensive glass has contributed to UND's overall rebounding average of 39.43 which rates second in the Summit League and 71st in Division I. 
*Through seven games, the Hawks employ a scoring defense (72.9) that is third among Summit League opposition. 

SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Eastern Washington enters the Big Sky-Summit Challenge at 1-7 overall which includes road losses at Colorado, Missouri, Washington State and Utah. Five of the Eagles' eight games have been against opponents currently in quadrants 1 and 2. EWU's average opponent NET rank is 11th and the Eagles rate at 183rd nationally. 

EWU is led by Dan Monson who is in his first season in Cheney. Monson, who is in his 28th season as a head coach, is no stranger to success having won 446 games with coaching stops at Gonzaga (52), Minnesota (118) and Long Beach State (275). He was hired to lead the Eagles in April of 2024 after his stint at LBSU saw him become the program's winningest coach. Monson carries four NCAA Tournament appearances, nine NIT appearances, nine conference championships and four coach of the year awards into his tenure at EWU. 

The Eagles hold top 100 statistical marks in steals per game (56th; 8.9), free throw percentage (61st; 75.7%), turnovers forced per game (65th; 15.13) and turnover margin (90th; +2.5). 

Nic McClain paces the defensive effort that has pushed EWU to a top 60 steals per game mark nationally. McClain ranks sixth among DI players in total steals (24) and steals per game (3.00). Andrew Cook's free throw percentage of 91.9% rates 36th nationally and his 34 makes are tops among Big Sky players. 

Cook's 61% shooting clip ranks inside the top 40 in Division I. Cook, who leads the squad in minutes per game at 30.1, paces three other Eagles in double-figure scoring with 17.1 points per game. McClain follows with 16.0 ppg. Vice Zanki leads with a dozen made three-point shots and Sebastian Hartmann follows with 11. Both Hartmann and McClain are averaging over 5.0 rebounds per game. McClain orchestrates the offense with 34 assists at 4.3 per game.

UND BY THE NUMBERS
48- The combined number of rebounds and steals from junior guard Eli King. King owns UND's single-game highs this season in rebounds (9) and steals (3). He leads in total steals (8) and ranks second in total rebounds (40).
37- The national rank of UND's offensive rebounding average. The Hawks are leading the Summit League in offensive boards per game with 13.86. Additionally, UND ranks inside the DI top 75 in rebounding average at 39.43.
26.2- Despite two tough outings defending the three-point shot in Cancun, the Hawks' 26.2% opponent success rate from beyond-the-arc remains the lowest in the Summit League and ranks 16th nationally. 
18.4- Junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff's ppg through seven games this season. The average leads all Summit League players and ranks 61st in the country. He is one of two players in the league with a 30-point game this season. 
3- The number of Hawks averaging 28+ minutes through seven games this season. Treysen Eaglestaff's 30.9 minutes/game ranks third in the Summit. Eli King and Dariyus Woodson are both averaging 28.1 min/game.

A UND WIN WOULD
» Snap a two-game losing streak this season and a four-game losing streak to EWU
» Give the Hawks the series lead over EWU at 8-7
» Even UND's road record this season to 2-2
» Be the first for the Hawks in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge
» Be better than a loss