by Josh McSwain
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The North Dakota men’s basketball team closed out their regular season Saturday, honoring three seniors (Brady Danielson, Caleb Nero and Matt Norman) before the game and then defeated St. Thomas 82-74 behind a career best 20 points from Tsotne Tsartsidze and another excellent game from B.J. Omot with 17 points and Treysen Eaglestaff scored 13 off the bench for his fourth straight game in double figures.
Tsartsidze and Danielson tied for the lead with seven rebounds and Eaglestaff, Omot and Jalun Trent each dished out three assists. Tsartsidze and Eaglestaff each made three treys.
The Tommies had the upper hand early on, leading by as many as eight points at 11-3 in the first few minutes of the game. From that point, UND went on a 14-4 run to take their first lead of the game at 17-15. Tsartsidze got his first two baskets of the game to start the run and then Norman hit a three to tie the game before Omot gave UND the lead with the layup. A few minutes later with UND up by one, Elijah Brooks came up with a great defensive play to get the steal and led a fast break in which he got a layup.
The half continued to be close, and with the score tied at 22 with 6:18 left in the half the Tommies got a turnover and were going in for a layup but Omot came up with the trailing block and kept the game knotted. Over the rest of the half the game seesawed back and forth, and ultimately the Hawks took a two point lead into the locker room at 40-38.
At the start of the second half, the Tommies tied the game at 42 but from there an 8-0 run for the Hawks gave them their biggest lead of the game to that point. Danielson opened with a three and then Omot hit a jumper in the paint and Trent hit from downtown. But the Tommies would not go away quietly, bringing the game within three points at 57-54 with just over ten minutes left.
Tsartsidze hit a three to give the Hawks a six-point cushion, Norman hit a layup to make it eight but the battle continued. UND repelled every run from the Tommies and got up double digits at 74-64 with 3:29 to go. But with 1:52 left, the visitors had made it a five-point game. From there, UND salted the game away from the foul line with Tsartsidze, Danielson and Omot all cashing in from the stripe.
