SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The North Dakota men's basketball team fell 73-72 to Omaha on Sunday night in the 3 vs. 6 matchup, in a game that came down to the final seconds at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

Treysen Eaglestaff led the Fighting Hawks with 18 points, while Amar Kuljuhovic led with 11 rebounds and Tyree Ihenacho and Tsotne Tsartsidze tied for the team lead with four assists. B.J. Omot joined Eaglestaff in double-figures with 14, and Tsartsidze added 13.

NoDak got on the board first with a three pointer from Eaglestaff, one of his three three-pointers in the game. The green and white led for the first ten-plus minutes of the game before Omaha went on a 9-0 run with the score 18-14 to take its first lead of the game, but UND closed the half on an 18-9 run over the last seven and a half minutes to take a four-point advantage into the locker room. Ihenacho beat the buzzer before halftime with a layup off the glass that rolled into the net and made the score 36-32 after 20 minutes.

Eaglestaff made the first basket of the second half, which was also from downtown, and as the half went on the Fighting Hawks expanded their lead to double digits at 58-48 with 11:14 to go. The lead went back up to ten with 7:39 to go as Ihenacho went 1-2 from the foul line to make it 64-54, and then pushed to ten again at 68-58 with 4:59 left following a driving layup from Eaglestaff. With 2:53 left Tsartsidze went 2-2 from the foul line to make it 72-63, but Omaha scored ten straight points—including the game winning basket from Frankie Fidler with three seconds left.

The Fighting Hawks got one last shot as Eli King released the ball from half court, it was off the mark as the horn sounded.

Postgame Notes 

·        UND finishes the season 18-14, the first winning season since going 22-10 in 2016-17.

·        Omot finishes the season with 535 points, 46 shy of the sophomore point scoring mark set by Travis Tuttle (581 points) in 1993-94.

·        Eaglestaff finished the season with 80 made threes, which was one shy of Matt Norman's total last season and four shy of tying Quinton Hooker's D1 program record mark of 84.

·        Brady Danielson concludes his career with a program record 151 games played.

·        Fidler led all scorers with 34 points.

How It Happened 

First Half

14:00 – UND 12, Omaha 7

10:33 – UND 18, Omaha 16

8:26 – Omaha 19, UND 18

4:30 – UND 30, Omaha 28

Half – UND 36, Omaha 32

Second Half

15:56 – UND 42, Omaha 37

11:59 – UND 54, Omaha 46

7:39 – UND 64, Omaha 54

3:40 – UND 70, Omaha 63

Final – Omaha 73, UND 72