UND Drops Third Straight with 95-85 Loss to UTSA; Now Prepare for 7th Ranked Alabama

NORTH DAKOTA DROPPED THEIR SECOND CONSECUTIVE CONTEST TO UTSA SUNDAY FALLING 95-85.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR/UND ATHLETICS) –Senior forward Deng Mayar registered his second-straight double double with 14 points and ten rebounds and North Dakota received 20-plus point efforts from junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff and junior forward Dariyus Woodson, but UTSA showcased a 63% effort from three-point range with 15 made attempts and managed to fend off the late-surging Fighting Hawks at the stripe to claim a 95-85 win on Sunday afternoon inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

The second meeting between the two programs in less than 48 hours combined for 28 made three-point attempts, saw the Hawks win the rebounding battle again (+10) and the Roadrunners capitalize on points off turnovers (+17).

Eaglestaff bagged a pair of early threes coming out of the intermission with his second tying the contest at 40. However, the Roadrunners could rarely miss from three-point range in the final twenty minutes shooting 8-for-12 (66.7%) which included nailing their first three attempts of the half and five of their first six as UTSA’s halftime lead grew to 17 points at the 11:33 mark of the second half.

North Dakota battled to keep the deficit at 10 as shots by Mayar, Woodson and junior guard King helped close the gap. A dunk by the Roadrunners’ Joseph Tai’reon with 4:36 remaining put UTSA up 16 at 80-64 and appeared to be the final nail. However, the Hawks had one final surge left and it was jumpstarted by a King triple ten seconds later. Panoam converted 3-of-4 from the stripe on back-to-back possessions, Woodson nailed a triple and senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic rustled inside for an old fashioned three-point play as those efforts brought the Hawks to within nine points at the 2:36 mark.

King assisted Eaglestaff on a transition three as the lead was cut down to six and the Betty was brought to life. Moments later, Mayar was alone in the corner, and he made good on the space to bring the Hawks to within a bucket at 85-82 with less than 90 seconds to play. The Roadrunners responded by making all six of their free throw attempts in the final minute of action to hold off the Hawks for the second time in three days.

The visiting Roadrunners built a ten-point advantage at 19-9 through the first 11 minutes of the opening half behind seven UND turnovers which helped spur a 16-2 UTSA run in that stretch. The Hawks managed to fight off an over five-minute scoring drought to trail by seven points at the under-8 media timeout.

UND responded coming out of the media stoppage as Eaglestaff nailed a triple try to cut the deficit to one possession with just over seven minutes remaining before the intermission. Woodson answered a three-point make by the Roadrunners with a pump fake along the wing and then a drive inside to finish. A minute later, he drained a three-point make on an assist from Eaglestaff to pull the Hawks back within four points at 25-21. On the next trip down the floor, Deng hit from range to answer UTSA and cut the lead to three at 27-24.

Tough finishes inside by Woodson and sophomore guard Mier Panoam and another trifecta from Eaglestaff highlighted the final stretch of the opening half for the Hawks who trailed by just five at the intermission.

North Dakota looks ahead to its most anticipated home game in recent memory as #7/8 Alabama, a Final Four participant a season ago, treks to Grand Forks for a Wednesday night tip-off inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Action commences at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.

“I think having the University of Alabama on our campus and in our gym, it’s a cool opportunity,” said head coach Paul Sather. “You don’t see teams do that very often. So, credit to them that they wanted to. It’s going to be a fun, packed environment. It’s up to us and our job to go out there and compete every possession to see what happens.”

Postgame Notes

• The Hawks matched their season-high in points scored with 85
• UND netted a season high 13 shots from beyond-the-arc and matched their season high in attempts from range with 33
• UND’s success rate from deep (.394) is a season high
• The Hawks struggled from the line connecting on only 14 of its 26 attempts, while UTSA, one of the top free throw shooting teams in the country, made 22 of 24
• UND registered 17 offensive rebounds and has recorded a dozen or more in 11 of 12 games this season
• It marked the sixth time that the Hawks have recorded 40+ rebounds this season
• Mayar’s double-double is the fifth by a Fighting Hawk this season and his second consecutive
• Mayar’s 14 points are the most by the senior in a UND uniform and he matched UND career-highs in field goals made (5), attempts (9), three-point field goals made (2) and three-point attempts (3)
• Eaglestaff connected on five three-point attempts for the second time this season and for the ninth time in his career and his 13 attempts from deep on Sunday matched his career high
• Eaglestaff crossed over the 20-point mark for the 13th time in his career and his two dozen points moves him 40 points away from 1,000 for his career
• Woodson’s career-high 23 points were a product of career-high marks in field goals made (9), attempts (19) and three-point attempts (13)
• The Hawks put two players over 20 points for the first time this season
• Eli King delivered a career-high six assists and filled in the box score with eight points, five rebounds, one block and a steal
• Panoam recorded his third game this season with two steals and he added eight points, two assists and a rebound

How It Happened

First Half

15:45 – UND 4, UTSA 3 (UTSA 0-for-last-5 FGs)

9:53 – UTSA 13, UND 9 (UTSA 8-0 run, UND 6 TOs last 4:39)

8:59 – UTSA 19, UND 9 (UTSA 16-2 run over 4:30; UND 7 TOs last 5:33)

7:42 – UTSA 19, UND 12 (UND no FGs last 5:17; UTSA 13 points off 8 UND TOs)

3:39 – UTSA 29, UND 27 (UND 5-of-last 7 FGs)

HALF – UTSA 39, UND 34

Second Half

15:35 – UTSA 52, UND 42 (UTSA 12-2 run over 2:54)

11:20 – UTSA 65, UND 50 (UTSA 5-of-6 3FGs in 2nd half, 10-of-12 from field)

9:02 – UTSA 67, UND 57 (UND 5-of-last-6 FGs; UTSA 2:31 scoring drought)

7:41 – UTSA 70, UND 57

3:57 – UTSA 80, UND 67

2:10 – UTSA 85, UND 79 (UND 6-0 run last 0:26)

FINAL – UTSA 95, UND 85