by Josh McSwain
VERMILLION, S.D. – The North Dakota men’s basketball team defeated South Dakota 95-81 Thursday night, winning for the fifth straight game and winning in Vermillion in back-to-back years for the first time since 1998 & 1999.
B.J. Omot led the team with 25 points, joined by Tyree Ihenacho who scored 21. The duo also went over 20 against Oral Roberts last month. Amar Kuljuhovic had a career high 17 rebounds, the first Fighting Hawk to grab that many boards since Marlon Stewart did against Western Illinois in February of 2020.
Treysen Eaglestaff got the scoring going with the first basket of the game and ten of the first 16 points for the Fighting Hawks. The half went back and forth as each team had scoring spurts, which prevented either team from pulling away. With the game tied at 30 with 2:52 left in the half, NoDak finished the half on a 7-0 run, with Omot hitting from downtown and then scoring a layup and Kuljuhovic closed the half with a jumper to make it a 37-30 lead at intermission. UND did not trail at any point in the half, though it was tied five times.
In the opening ten minutes of the second half, the Coyotes pulled within four at 39-35; but the Fighting Hawks repelled the hosts with a 7-0 run. Kuljuhovic scored all seven points in the spurt as UND went back up double-digits at 11. With 8:45 to go, it was a five point game at 65-60 but Omot hit from downtown to stop the momentum that was swinging back to the home team. Each time that the Coyotes made a push, the green and white had an answer to close out the 14 point win
