by FARGO, N.D. – Junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff scored 15 of his 22 points in the second half and that effort helped spur a 15-4 North Dakota run which pulled the Hawks to within a point of the North Dakota State lead as the clock dipped under six minutes, but the host held off the visitors from Grand Forks in the game’s final moments to win the 310th meeting between the Peace Garden State foes 87-82 on Saturday afternoon from inside Scheels Center.
North Dakota (8-15, 2-6 SL) nearly outlasted 48 three-point attempts from the nation’s second-leading three-point shooting team in the Bison. NDSU saw a third of those attempts hit the bottom of the net as the Bison shot just ten times inside the arc, while also attempting 33 free throws. The Hawks shot 41.3% from the floor for the game and hit half of their 30 attempts in the second half but struggled throughout from the stripe connecting on just 60% for the game.
NDSU built its largest lead of the back-and-forth first half on a five-point swing that ended with a corner three and a 41-31 advantage for the host with 68 seconds remaining before the intermission. UND answered on the other end with two free throws from sophomore forward Mambourou Mara and following a defensive stop, the Hawks held for the final shot with Eaglestaff netting a contact three from the top-of-the-key and finishing the four-point play to pull the Hawks within four at the break.
The Hawks never led in the second half, but pulled to within one point of the NDSU lead three times including a three from Eli King immediately out of the halftime break. UND’s aforementioned 15-4 nearly erased all of a 12-point deficit as Eaglestaff accounted for eight points in the run which included a pair of tough drives to the basket. Within that run, junior guard Eli King clamped down to force a steal and delivered out front to a racing Mier Panoam who finished, while senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic gathered an offensive board and finished inside.
Moments after the Bison momentarily halted the Hawks, Eaglestaff drained a trifecta in front of a smothering Jacari White to pull UND to 76-74 with 3:55 to play. A three from junior forward Dariyus Woodson brought the Hawks back within a possession at 83-81 in the final half minute, but the Bison went perfect on a trio of trips to the stripe in that same span to hold off UND who lost three players to fouls over the final eight minutes to play.
