UND Men’s Basketball Sees Prep Time as Benefit With South Dakota on Horizon in Summit League Tournament

Fighting Hawks lost both regular season meeting to the Coyotes

GRAND FORKS, N.D — North Dakota men’s basketball heads into the Summit League Tournament as the number six seed and faces a unique situation when their first game tips off in Sioux Falls on Sunday. UND faces the three seed South Dakota who was the last opponent they faced.

Not only did the Coyotes and Fighting Hawks face each other to end the regular season, both sides met twice in the last month creating a lot of familiarity from a game-planning standpoint.

As the third match-up approaches, theHhawks believe a full week in between meetings benefits them after losing both previous contests.

“I’d say its hard to beat a team three times in a season especially twice in two weeks or a week more so,” guard Marlon Stewart said. “We didn’t have much time to prepare for them last week like I said, we basically have the whole week to prepare for them so I think we’ll be ready this time around.”

“From a schematic standpoint, there might be some adjustments you make but you can’t make a million adjustments,” head coach Paul Sather said. “You have to still be who you are and try to sharper that edge a little but better and just doing a better job of having more awareness.”

The game with the Coyotes closes out Quarterfinal action on Sunday night at 8:30