North Dakota at South Dakota State || 1/16 (7 p.m.)
202nd meeting, UND leads 105-96
Brookings, S.D. (First Bank & Trust Arena)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - North Dakota and South Dakota State meet on Thursday night in Brookings. Both teams enter looking to keep pace with the top half of the Summit League. Tip-off from inside First Bank & Trust Arena is set for 7 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 can be seen on Midco Sports and the Summit League Network. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.

SERIES HISTORY
Saturday's matchup will be the 202nd meeting all-time between the two teams in a series that began in 1917. UND leads the all-time series 105-96, but the Jackrabbits hold a 63-35 advantage over the Hawks in Brookings. Since 2018-19, UND's first year in the Summit League, the Jackrabbits have had their way with North Dakota winning all 13 matchups including seven in Brookings. SDSU has won 17 straight games against the Hawks and 22 straight at home. 

SIX THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
1) The Jackrabbits defend at the league's best rate of 41.8% which currently sits just outside the top 100 nationally.
2) SDSU leads the Summit League in rebounding (40.11), rebound margin (8.8) and defensive rebounds per game (28.89) with the averages in margin and defensive per game each inside the top 15 nationally and the overall mark ranking inside the top 30.
3) The board production is due in large part to Oscar Cluff who leads the Summit League in all four major rebounding categories and ranks in the top five nationally in rebounds per game (11.8), rebounds (189) and offensive rebounds per game (4.06). His 7.75 defensive rebounds per game ranks 10th in DI. 
4) Cluff is also the league's top shooter with a 70% clip from the floor to go along with the league's fourth-highest scoring average at 17.5 ppg and a league-best 11 double-doubles.
5) Owen Larson and Kalen Garry rank ninth and tenth among the league's perimeter shooters in total three-point field goals with a combined 69. 
6) The Jackrabbits connect at the league's second-highest rate of 47.1% and also hold the second-highest marks in the SL in assists per game (14.5), blocks per game (2.8), effective FG% (.544) and fouls per game (15.8). 

PEAK CHASIN'
St. Thomas and Omaha enter the third week of league action unbeaten at 4-0. The two sides meet for the first time on January 23 in Omaha. Kansas City and North Dakota State each have a pair of wins in Summit League play, while four teams sit with one league victory with a dozen conference games remaining. 

In early October, North Dakota was tabbed to a sixth-place finish in the Summit League preseason poll. The Hawks were one of six teams to receive a first-place vote and totaled 283 points in a wide open Summit League rankings. North Dakota was just 22 points back of projected No. 5 Oral Roberts which received two first-place nods. St. Thomas edged the Golden Eagles for fourth, while Kansas City (17), South Dakota State (12) and North Dakota State (3) went 1-2-3. The squad's sixth-place appointment, the second highest for UND under Sather, in the preseason rankings is one spot back of last season's fifth-place selection and matches the Hawks' placement prior to the start of the 2020-21 season.

The nine-member mid major league produced a collective non-conference record of 69-64. Four Summit League teams, including North Dakota, enter league play on winning streaks with North Dakota State's eight-game streak pushing the Bison to a league-best 11-4 start. Kansas City has won four-straight, while Omaha joins UND as winners of their past two.

LAST TIME OUT
North Dakota was unable to finish off Oral Roberts on Saturday night inside the Mabee Center as the Summit League contest, which saw ten tied scores and seven lead changes, went the way of the Golden Eagles as a late three by Issac McBride, just the fourth by the host all night, cushioned ORU's advantage in the final seconds with the host winning 83-79.
 
Sophomore Mier Panoam scored inside to pull UND to within one at 78-77 and then denied a driving attempt by McBride two possessions later with 58 seconds to play, but the latter would net a cushion triple following an empty opportunity from the Hawks.
 
Three pointers by senior Deng Mayar and a pair from junior Dariyus Woodson aided the Hawks in taking a 53-50 lead as the second half clock neared the 15-minute mark, but the Golden Eagles dominated inside with 50 total paint points and missed just twice inside in the final eight minutes of action after tying the contest at 65.
 
North Dakota led by as much as nine points in the first half which saw the Hawks hit four early three-pointers kickstarted by a far wing trifecta from Amar Kuljuhovic who led UND with a dozen points in the first twenty minutes. After a handful of made three-pointers, the Hawks struggled going 1-for-8 the rest of the way in the first half. ORU controlled the paint with two dozen points which aided the Golden Eagles' 59.3% shooting clip in 27 attempts from the floor in the first half.
 
The Hawks led for over 18 minutes in the opening half of action, but a scoreless stretch in the half's final 2:11 and a 9-2 ORU run over the 3:12 sent the host into the intermission with the advantage.

MIER-IAD OF POINTS
Sophomore Mier Panoam can score and since the calendar has turned over to 2025, the Tulane transfer has been filling up the box score. Panoam enters week 3 of Summit League action averaging 21.3 points per game with three-straight 20+ point games to start league play. In that stretch, Panoam is shooting 50.8% (32-of-63) from the floor and 82.6% (19-of-23) from the free throw line. He scored a then-career high 24 points at home against Omaha, followed that with his first career double double of 20 points and 12 rebounds against St. Thomas and then bested his Omaha outing with 28 points on a career-best 12 made shots in the road win at Denver. Against Oral Roberts, he added 13 points for his sixth-straight game in double-figure scoring and 13th this season.

Additionally, Panoam has delivered 32 rebounds, 14 assists and four steals. 

A MILE HIGH FOR SEASON HIGHS
UND's win over the Pioneers was the 21st road win for UND in Sather's tenure and the 34th against Summit League opposition. The Hawks' 95 points were the most against a Division I opponent this season, the third time UND has crossed over 90 points and the seventh time a Sather-led UND squad has dropped 90+ points in Summit League action. UND netted shots at a season-best 51.6% effort from the floor and posted season highs in free throws made (24) and free throws attempted (32), while UND's 13 steals were the second-most this season, the most against a DI foe, and just the second time the Hawks have recorded 10+ in a game this season.

HANDLE WITH CARE
The Hawks are +4.8 in turnover margin in Summit League play. UND has turned the basketball over less than nine times in three of its four league contests and has committed nine or fewer turnovers in five of their past six games.

THE BIG O
Following his historic effort against #6 Alabama and a home win over South Dakota Mines, junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff was named the Summit League Peak Performer of the Week for the second time this season and for the fifth time in his career. 

Additionally, Eaglestaff's efforts were recognized on the national stage as he was one of five players named an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for games of the week ending Sunday, Dec. 22. Eaglestaff was joined by Donovan Dent (New Mexico), Caden Pierce (Princeton), Erik Reynolds (Saint Joseph's) and Bruce Thornton (Ohio State). He is the first Hawk to receive the honor since the award's inception began during the 2009-10 season.

DROPPED 40 & PICKED UP 1K
Eaglestaff's scoring clinic against Alabama ended on a step back, near corner triple try that tickled twine to not only bring UND to within three points of the Crimson Tide lead late, but gave him a Betty Engelstad Sioux Center scoring record and a career best single-game effort in addition to pushing him to 1,000 career points. He is the 39th player in program history to reach the mark and the 12th to do it in UND's Division I era (2008-09).

TOP SCORER
Eaglestaff is one of the top scorers in the Summit League ranking second with 18.6 points per game (47th DI) and is tenth in the country in total points with 353. He ranks 21st nationally in field goals (119) and 11th in field goal attempts (282) both of which lead the Summit League.

Additionally, he ranks 21st nationally in three-point attempts (137) and 62nd nationally in three-point makes (46). His 2.42 made three-pointers per game are the fourth-most in the league.

Eaglestaff scored in double-figures in his first 17 games of the season crossing over the 20-point mark in seven of those. He finished his sophomore campaign reaching the double-figure scoring mark in the final six games for a streak of 23 games with 10+ points. 

HOT PURSUIT
Eaglestaff eyes a move up the program record books as he is currently eighth in career three-pointers with 183 which makes him the program's leader in made three pointers among players that played their entire career in UND's D1 era. The Bismarck native is 17 made threes away from becoming the fourth player in program history with 200 career made three-pointers. Additionally, Eaglestaff moved into third all-time on the Hawks' D1 three-point attempt list and he is currently fifth on the all-time list. Eaglestaff continues his climb up the scoring charts and sits at #37 with 1,090 career points. He is six points away from entering the program's top 35 and ten points from becoming the 34th player in program history with 1,100 career points.

KRAFTHREE
Grand Forks locals and those around the Red River Valley are no stranger to the game of redshirt freshman guard Zach Kraft. Those that aren't aware, should take notice. The former Red River HS standout's emergence as a key player off the bench for North Dakota developed quickly in the month of December. 

Kraft made his collegiate debut in the season opener at Colorado State, scored his first career points against Dickinson State in Bismarck and through the first nine games that he appeared for the Fighting Hawks, he totaled just over 48 minutes played, attempted seven shots with six from deep to go along with two makes and added two rebounds and two assists. 

Enter Alabama. Kraft delivered nine clutch points from beyond-the-arc in the battle with the Crimson Tide. He entered the contest with two made three point attempts in his young career and proceeded to hammer a trio of triple tries and added a steal in a career-high 18 minutes of action. His first make put the Hawks up 19-12 at the 11:27 mark of the opening half, his second three increased UND's lead to four at 32-28 with 4:44 remaining before the half and his final trifecta cut the Hawks' second-half deficit to five and was a key make in UND's answer to a 14-2 Alabama run.

Over the past seven games, Kraft has totaled 115+ minutes (16.4 mpg) and is shooting 46.3% from the floor (19-of-41) with a 46.2% clip (18-of-39) from three-point range. He netted no fewer than two three-point shots in each of the first six games in this seven-game stretch, which includes career highs in three-pointers made (4) and points (12) in the non-conference finale win over Waldorf.  

1KULJUHOVIC
Senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic reached a personal milestone 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 468 points in 50 games as a Fighting Hawk. 

The scoring milestone isn't the only one in reach for Kuljuhovic as he is 91 rebounds shy of 1,000 for his career. He registered 511 at LLC and currently has 398 as a Fighting Hawk with 143 coming on the offensive end of the floor. 

Kuljuhovic's rebounding efforts through 19 games has him rated third among Summit League players in total rebounds with 131. He also ranks third in offensive rebounds per game (3.16) and fourth in rebounding average (6.9). Additionally, Kuljuhovic ranks fifth in free throw attempts with a team-leading 93 and ninth in made free throws with 61. 

DARIYUS FROM DEEP
First-year Fighting Hawk, Dariyus Woodson, a TJC transfer and Baytown, Texas native, holds a pair of top 10 rankings among Summit League three-point shooters as league play commences. Woodson ranks fourth in the SL in three-point attempts with 112 and eighth in makes with 36. His 2.00 makes per game ranks 9th in the SL, while his overall scoring average of 11.1 ppg is a top 20 mark among all league scorers. 

ROAD HAWKS
Eight of North Dakota's 15 non-conference games were outside the state. 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. The Hawks' first-semester travel totaled over 16,200 miles during its non-conference slate.

BUSY STRETCH
The Hawks endured a busy ten-day stretch prior to the Christmas holiday. North Dakota started with UVU in Orem (L, 57-80) and capped the stretch on Friday, December 20 against South Dakota Mines (W, 80-48) 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 battled #6/7 Alabama to the very end (Dec. 18; L, 90-97) inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. 

NOW BOARDING
The offensive glass has been controlled by UND in 15 of the squad's 19 games and the Hawks have been out-rebounded on the offensive glass just once. 

UND has grabbed 12+ offensive rebounds in every game but its season opener at Colorado State. Eight Hawks have recorded 10+ offensive boards this season led by Amar Kuljuhovic's 60. Brian Mathews follows with 37 and Mier Panoam rounds out the top three with 35.

North Dakota ranks 11th nationally in offensive rebounds per game at 14.89; a mark that leads the Summit League. The squad's overall rebounding average of 39.37 ranks second in the league and is in the top 45 nationally. Overall, the Hawks have out-rebounded their opposition a dozen 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.

Most recently, sophomore transfer guard Mier Panoam became the fourth Hawk this season with a double double as his first such performance ended with 20 points and 12 rebounds as he flirted with a triple double by adding six assists. 

FEAR MIER
Panoam has provided a big spark for the Hawks in year one in Grand Forks specifically with his ability to get to the basket. In addition to his torrid start to Summit League play, Panoam ranks second on the team with a top 15 scoring mark in the Summit League at 13.2 ppg. He holds top 10 league rankings in field goal attempts (199, 8th), rebounds (102, 6th), free throw attempts (85, 7th) and free throw makes (61, 9th) and is responsible for seven of UND's 22 three-point plays. His 90 made field goals are the sixth most in the Summit League. 

MORE MAYAR
Deng Mayar registered 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. 

THE BOOK OF ELI
Junior Eli King knows his way around a box score. The Caledonia, Minnesota native has been active on both ends of the floor and done a little bit of everything for North Dakota in 19 games this season.

King has played 30+ minutes in 11 games this season and in three of the first four SL games. He recorded a career-high 37 minutes in the home win over Weber State. In that victory, he 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 550 minutes, the second-most among Hawks, King is fourth on the team in offensive rebounds with 26, which included six against Notre Dame, and owns the fourth-highest rebounding average at 4.9. King's 94 total rebounds rank tenth in the SL. He has 11 games this season with 5+ rebounds and four games with 3+ steals including five vs. Waldorf. He holds a team-high mark in steals (29) and paces UND in offensive fouls drawn this season with 13. His total steal count ranks third in the Summit League and his steals average of 1.56 ranks fourth. 

UND BY THE NUMBERS
34- The number of Summit League wins for the Hawks under head coach Paul Sather. The Hawks won a program-best 10 Summit League games a season ago and have won seven or more league games in a season three times under Sather.
21.3- The average number of points per game scored by Mier Panoam four games into Summit League action. He delivered three-straight games of 20+ points to start conference play which included a career-high 28 points against Denver.
11- UND's national rank in offensive rebounds/game. The squad's mark of 14.89 leads the Summit League. UND has grabbed a dozen or more offensive rebounds in 18 of 19 games this season which is the most by a Sather-led UND team.
4- The number of Hawks that have recorded double doubles this season. Mier Panoam is the latest with 20 points and 12 rebounds against St. Thomas as he joined Amar Kuljuhovic (2), Deng Mayar (2) and George Natsvishvili.
3- The number of three-point makes needed by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff to move into fifth-place outright on the program's career list. His 183 makes from range are the most among Hawks who played their entire career at the DI level.

A UND WIN WOULD
» Be the 106th all-time against SDSU and first since 2011
» Snap a 17-game overall losing streak and a 22-game road losing streak to the Jackrabbits
» Improve UND to 35-54 vs. league foes under Sather
» Be the 22nd road win for the Hawks under Sather
» Be better than a loss