by Jacob Pumphrey
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – 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.
