North Dakota at North Dakota State || 1/25 (4 p.m.)
310th meeting, UND leads 106-95
Fargo, N.D. (Scheels Center)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Two longtime bitter rivals convene on the hardwood in Fargo on Saturday afternoon as North Dakota men's basketball makes the short trip south to battle North Dakota State. Tip-off inside Scheels Center is set for 4 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
The two Peace Garden State foes tangle for the 310th time in a series that began in March of 1905. UND leads the all-time series 164-145 and is 60-88 against the Bison in Fargo. NDSU won last year's matchup at home by five points, while UND used a last second shot from Amar Kuljuhovic to beat the Bison 60-58 in Grand Forks. The win snapped a four-game losing streak to NDSU.  

SIX THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA STATE
1) Bradley is the lone team in the country that is currently shooting the three better than the Bison. NDSU leads the Summit at 41.1% and also ranks second nationally in three pointers per game with 12.1.
2) NDSU owns the league's second-highest scoring offense (82.3 ppg) and leads the league in scoring margin (10.2).
3) The Bison's 48.4% shooting clip is tops in the Summit League and they hold top three marks in defending the floor (43.8%) and the perimeter (31.5%)
4) Jacksen Moni is the league's top scorer at 19.7 ppg behind the second-highest shooting clip at 52.0%. He leads the SL in assists (72) and assists per game (4.0).
5) NDSU leads the Summit League in assists per game (15.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.51)
6) Jacari White follows Moni with 15.6 ppg and leads the league in three-point percentage at 44.7%, while Masen Miller's 55 makes from range and White's 53 are 1 and 2 in the conference. 

PEAK CHASIN'
Omaha won the battle of unbeatens to stay undefeated in league play with its win over St. Thomas. North Dakota State and South Dakota State are both tied at 4-2, while South Dakota is fifth at 3-3. Kansas City is 2-4 and the Hawks are 2-5. Oral Roberts and Denver each have a single win. 

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
It was a tale of two halves for North Dakota men's basketball on Thursday night inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center as the Fighting Hawks carried  a 51-49  lead  into  the break following a three-point barrage by both benches in the opening twenty but then suffered a significant scoring drought over the course of the game's final ten minutes as South Dakota rallied past UND 102-93 in Summit League action.
 
An early six points from sophomore guard Mier Panoam, who finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting, on drives to the basketball aided UND's dictation of the first four minutes of play and helped set the tone for the Hawks offensively in the first half. The two sides found plenty of success from beyond-the-arc in the first half as the two benches combined for 15 made three-point shots with the Hawks accounting for seven with three coming courtesy of junior forward Dariyus Woodson.
 
The Hawks' largest lead of the night came on a successful triple try from junior guard Eli King who beat an expiring shot clock for a 36-27 UND lead with 7:39 to play in the first half.
 
Ball movement was key early for the Hawks with Woodson benefiting from several passes on his first three-point make in addition to receiving a helper from sophomore George Natsvishvili on a near no-look pass to the cutter who finished. Natsvishvili also aided King on the aforementioned buzzer-beater.
 
Out of the intermission, sophomore forward Mambourou Mara, who opened scoring in the contest with a corner three, impacted the Hawks early on offensively with a pair of rim-rocking dunks and a baseline triple for a quick seven points out of the intermission and a five-point UND advantage at the 17:47 mark of the second half.
 
A trifecta from the stroke of junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff kept the Hawks in front by seven (66-59, 15:13), while a drive to the basket by Panoam (69-61, 13:49) pushed UND up eight with just under 14 minutes to play. Panoam again scored on a driving layup to keep the Coyotes at bay as UND held a 76-72 lead at the 11:08 mark. However, the Hawks would encounter trouble on the offensive end as USD engineered a 20-6 run to grab a ten-point lead with just over two minutes remaining, while the Hawks managed to pull as close as nine down the stretch. 

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 Saturday averaging 20.1 points per game, the third-best clip in Summit League play, with five 20+ point games and two double doubles. In that stretch, Panoam is shooting 54.0% (54-of-100) from the floor and 73.2% (30-of-41) 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 and at South Dakota State he registered ten for his seventh-straight game in double-figure scoring and 14th this season. Two days later, he recorded his second double double as ten rebounds accompanied a 21-point performance in a much needed home win over Kansas City. Most recently, Panoam dropped 25 points against USD on Thursday night. 

Additionally, Panoam has delivered 52 rebounds, 27 assists and five steals. 

HANDLE WITH CARE
The Hawks are +2.29 in turnover margin in Summit League play which is currently the second-best such mark in the conference. UND has turned the basketball over less than nine times in four of its seven league contests and has committed nine or fewer turnovers in six of their past nine games. UND's 1.43 assist-to-turnover ratio in seven SL contests is the third-best clip in the league. 

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 third with 18.0 points per game (67th DI) and is 15th in the country in total points with 397. He ranks 31st nationally in field goals (133) and 10th in field goal attempts (324) both of which lead the Summit League.

Additionally, he ranks 27th nationally in three-point attempts (155) and 74th nationally in three-point makes (52). His 2.36 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. For the season, he has scored in double figures in 21 of 22 games. 

HOT PURSUIT
Eaglestaff eyes a move up the program record books as he is currently fifth in career three-pointers with 189 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 11 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 fourth on the all-time list. Eaglestaff continues his climb up the scoring charts and sits at #29 with 1,134 career points. He is 43 points shy of entering the program's top 25 and 96 points from moving into the top 20 all-time. 

KRAFTHREE
Redshirt freshman Zach Kraft hammered a trio of triple tries in UND's battle with the Crimson Tide and since that performance, the Grand Forks native has nestled into a significant role coming off the bench for the Fighting Hawks. 

Prior to Kraft's efforts against Alabama, the guard had totaled just 48 minutes played, was 2-of-6 from range and had contributed two rebounds and a pair of assists.  

Since then, a span of ten games, Kraft is averaging 15.9 minutes per game and is shooting 48.1% from the floor with 47 of his 52 attempts coming from deep. His 44.7% success rate from three-point range is the best among all Hawks during that stretch as are his 21 made three-point shots. Additionally, he has chipped in with seven rebounds, six assists and five steals. 

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 500 points in 53 games as a Fighting Hawk. 

The scoring milestone isn't the only one in reach for Kuljuhovic as he is 69 rebounds shy of 1,000 for his career. He registered 511 at LLC and currently has 420 as a Fighting Hawk with 152 coming on the offensive end of the floor. 

Kuljuhovic's rebounding efforts through 22 games has him rated third among Summit League players in total rebounds with 153. He also ranks third in offensive rebounds per game (3.14) and fourth in rebounding average (7.0). Additionally, Kuljuhovic ranks seventh in free throw attempts with a team-leading 97 and 11th in made free throws with 65. 

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 third in the SL in three-point attempts with 125 and eighth in makes with 40. His 1.9 makes per game ranks 11th in the SL, while his overall scoring average of 10.8 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 18 of the squad's 22 games and the Hawks have been out-rebounded on the offensive glass twice. 

UND has grabbed 12+ offensive rebounds in 20 of 22 games. Nine Hawks have recorded 10+ offensive boards this season led by Amar Kuljuhovic's 69. Mier Panoam follows with 43 and Brian Mathews has added 41.

North Dakota ranks 11th nationally in offensive rebounds per game at 14.59; a mark that leads the Summit League. The squad's overall rebounding average of 38.77 ranks second in the league and is in the top 60 nationally. Overall, the Hawks have out-rebounded their opposition 14 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.

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 against St. Thomas in the Summit League opener. Most recently, Panoam went for 21 points, his fifth such game this season, and added ten rebounds in a home win vs. Kansas City.

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 12 scoring mark in the Summit League at 14.0 ppg. He holds top 10 league rankings in field goal attempts (236, 6th), rebounds (122, 6th), free throw attempts (103, 6th) and free throw makes (72, 8th) and is responsible for seven of UND's 24 three-point plays. His 112 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 22 games this season.

King has played no fewer than 20 minutes in 20-consecutive games with 12 of those games at 30 or more minutes. 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 634 minutes, the second-most among Hawks, King is fourth on the team in offensive rebounds with 30, which included six against Notre Dame, and owns the third-highest rebounding average at 5.0. King's 111 total rebounds rank seventh in the SL. He has 13 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 14. His total steal count ranks third and his steals average of 1.0 ranks 12th in the Summit League. 

UND BY THE NUMBERS
35- 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.
20.1- The average number of points per game scored by Mier Panoam seven games into Summit League action. He delivered three-straight games of 20+ points to start conference play, five total since January 1 and has a pair of double doubles.
11- The number of three-point makes needed by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff to reach 200 for his career. He would become the fourth player in program history with 200 or more makes from three-point range and the first exclusively Division I player in program history to do so.
11- UND's national rank in offensive rebounds/game. The squad's mark of 14.59 leads the Summit League. UND has grabbed a dozen or more offensive rebounds in 20 of 22 games this season which is the most by a Sather-led UND team.
5- The number of conference-only statistical categories that sophomore guard Mier Panoam ranks inside the Summit League's top five in. Panoam's 20.1 ppg ranks third, while his 7.4 rebounds per game ranks fourth. He is shooting 54% from the floor (4th) and is averaging 3.9 assists per game (4th) with a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio (5th). 

A UND WIN WOULD
» Be the 165th all-time against the Bison
» Be the 61st against NDSU in Fargo
» Cap the Hawks' first round of SL play at 3-5
» Improve UND to 36-56 vs. league foes under Sather
» Be better than a loss