ST. PAUL, Minn. – St. Thomas led wire-to-wire on Thursday night inside Schoenecker Arena using a quick start and a consistent offensive attack to defeat North Dakota 86-71. The loss for the Fighting Hawks snaps a two-game winning streak and drops UND's overall record to 11-19 with a 5-10 mark in Summit League play. UST has won 17 straight games at home.
 
The Hawks were led offensively by sophomore Mambourou Mara who delivered a career high 18 points on seven made shots including a third of UND's six made three pointers. Senior Deng Mayar scored in double figures for the second straight game as he finished with 13 points. Sophomore Mier Panoam added 11 points and a team high seven rebounds, while redshirt freshman Zach Kraft scored ten points behind two made threes.
 
UST led 11-6 at the first media timeout and built its lead to 10 points at the under-12 stoppage. An inside basket by Amar Kuljuhovic and a three-pointer from Kraft each brought the UND deficit under ten and at the 9:50 mark, Mara hammered a three to pull the Hawks to within 24-19 of the Tommies' advantage. On the next trip down, Kuljuhovic scored inside as UND trailed 24-21.
 
The Tommies responded with an 11-0 run to lead 32-21, which was part of a larger 20-3 UST run that increased the host's lead to 17. The Hawks would get as close at 13 points before trailing by 15 at the intermission. That deficit proved to be too much for the Hawks as UND moved as close as ten points over the opening ten minutes of the second half, while a dozen points is as close as the visitors moved to the UST lead in the final ten minutes of play.
 
The Hawks turn their attention to the final matchup of the regular season on Saturday as the calendar turns to March. North Dakota meets South Dakota in a 4 p.m. tipoff from inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion. USD outlasted UND 102-93 on January 23 in Grand Forks.  
 
The action can be seen on Midco Sports and the Summit League Network. Fans can follow the action live with Fighting Hawks men's basketball radio play-by-play voice Paul Ralston on KSNR 100.3 FM The Cat or on the iHeart Radio app. Live stats for the contest will be available at www.FightingHawks.com.
 
Postgame Notes

• In addition to his career high scoring effort, Mara recorded a new career high in shots made (7) and matched his single game best output in field goal attempts (10), 3PT field goal attempts (5) and rebounds (5)
• Mara becomes the sixth different Hawk to lead the team in scoring this season
• Kraft notched a career high in rebounds (4), recorded his first career block and matched his single-game bests in assists (2) and shots made (4)
• Mayar dished out a pair of assists for the third time this season in addition to setting a new career high in field goal attempts (12)
• UND recorded a season high in assists (19) and matched its season high in blocked shots (5)
• UND's 68 shot attempts are the fourth most in a game by the Hawks this season
• North Dakota committed a season low four turnovers

 
How It Happened
 
First Half
14:48 – UST 11, UND 6
11:59 – UST 21, UND 11
7:18 – UST 30, UND 21
4:23 – UST 39, UND 24
HALF – UST 47, UND 32
 
Second Half
16:00 – UST 52, UND 39
10:38 – UST 64, UND 52
7:49 – UST 72, UND 55
4:00 – UST 77, UND 65
1:55 – UST 83, UND 69
FINAL – UST 86, UND 71
                                                                                                                          
For more information on North Dakota men's basketball, visit FightingHawks.com or follow on social media @UNDmbasketball.