(UND Athletics) GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The North Dakota men’s basketball team returned home for the final weekend of the regular season Thursday morning, with an early start against Western Illinois. It was a tough day shooting for the Hawks, who fell 81-70. Tsotne Tsartsidze had his fourth double-double of the season with 19 points (which tied his career high) and 13 rebounds. It was the 11th straight game in double figures for the Hawks forward.
B.J. Omot also joined Tsartsidze in double figures with 16 points and blocked two shots. Treysen Eaglestaff was the third Hawk in double figures with 14 points and made three shots from downtown. He also led the team with three assists.
UND took the lead at 2-0 with a dunk from Omot, which would prove to be the only lead for the Hawks on the day. WIU pulled ahead and would lead the entire first half until UND tied the game at 27 late in the first half. Down 27-20 with 5:53 to go the Hawks reeled off seven straight points, capped off by a three from Norman to make it a tie game for the first time since 2-2. But UND was unable to ride the momentum back ahead and would trail 38-32 at the break.
In the second half, the Hawks cut the deficit to just four points early on as Brady Danielson and Matt Norman made back-to-back buckets. But each time that the Hawks would gain some momentum in the second half, the Leathernecks would answer. After trailing by double digits most of the second half, the Hawks got back to within eight as Omot connected on two foul shots with 4:01 to play at 72-64. But once again Western Illinois would answer and not allow UND to pull any closer the rest of the way.
North Dakota will host St. Thomas on Saturday at 1 P.M. in the regular season finale at the Betty.
Comments