(UND Athletics) VERMILLION, S.D. – The North Dakota men’s basketball team capped off two weeks of road games with their fourth and final contest Saturday at the University of South Dakota. After a nail-biter in the first game between the two, the Hawks won decisively in this one 86-72. Matt Norman got his first start since December 12 against North Central and made the most of it as he led the Hawks once again with 21 points. B.J. Omot had one of his best games of the season as he scored 17 points and blocked five shots—the first Hawk to record five blocks in a game since Filip Rebraca blocked eight shots against Milwaukee on November 19, 2019.
This win was the Hawks third win away from Grand Forks this season, and the first since winning 77-73 at Elon in November.
Early on Tsotne Tsartsidze scored the first four points for the Hawks, and then Jalun Trent made his first three pointer of the season to put UND up 7-4 in the first few minutes of the game. USD came back to tie the game at nine, but Tsartsidze hit from downtown to put UND back on top. The game was tight during the first ten minutes, and USD got up by one at 22-21 with 9:48 to go in the first half, but a three pointer from Brady Danielson put UND back on top and from there the Hawks would not trail again.
The Coyotes pulled within two at 29-27, but a 7-0 spurt from the Hawks pushed the lead to nine—including back-to-back threes from Norman and Omot. Ultimately the Hawks would take a 47-40 lead into the locker room, making ten threes in the first half. Norman had 14 at the break and Trent also reached double figures with ten points.
In the second half the Hawks pushed the lead to double digits as Norman hit the first shot of the second half—a triple to make it 50-40. Later with the score 55-46, a 12-2 run for the Hawks pushed their lead to the biggest of the day to that point at 67-48. The run included back-to-back buckets from Tsartsidze and a highlight reel dunk from Omot, capped by a layup from Treysen Eaglestaff.
With 9:06 to go the Hawks took their biggest lead of the day as Tsartsidze hit a jumper to make it 74-52. But over the next few minutes the Coyotes chipped away at the lead to make it a 12-point game at 75-63. But with the momentum going against the Hawks, Trent made a driving layup to end the run and kept the Hawks ahead by double digits the rest of the way.
Omot set new career highs with nine rebounds, eight free throws made (8-8 from the line) and five blocks. Trent also set a new career high with 14 points and had his first game with two threes made, as well as tying his career high with eight rebounds. The team blocked eight shots, a season high.
For the game, the Hawks shot 49.1% from the field and 40.6% from downtown while limiting the Coyotes to shooting 40.3% from the floor and 23.5% from beyond the arc.
North Dakota will come home to take on Denver on Thursday night and then Omaha Saturday afternoon.
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