UND has dealt with injuries all season. Coach Brian Jones, however, hasn't wavered from his daily message to his team: Stay the course.
UND stayed the course once again Saturday -- holding off Southern Utah 68-61 in a physical, knock-down Big Sky Conference game before 1,737 fans at The Betty.
North Dakota ended the regular season 12-8 in the Big Sky and 15-15 overall. UND will take the No. 3 seed into this week's postseason league tournament in Missoula, Mont., where North Dakota will again play Southern Utah on Thursday night at 6:30. SUU finished with the No. 6 seed.
"Give guys credit for staying the course," Jones said. "They did what we've done the last couple of years -- finish strong. We've won a couple of (Great West) tournaments the last couple seasons but we're in unchartered territory with the Big Sky tournament. But we can go into it knowing we've played well down the stretch.
"We want to have fun with it and embrace the moment."
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UND's 12 Big Sky wins -- six coming on the road -- are the most ever by a first-year league team. North Dakota also has won seven of its last nine Big Sky games -- mostly by figuring out different ways to do the job.
Injuries have been commonplace for UND this season. On Saturday, another UND player went down. Four minutes into the game, guard Aaron Anderson hit the floor after crashing hard into backcourt pick. He suffered an apparent concussion.
"He was blindsided," UND guard Jamal Webb said. "It turned out bad for him."
But things still turned out well for UND as Webb picked up the slack, scoring 19 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
His back-to-back baskets, coming on drives, gave UND a 61-52 advantage with 1:29 to play. SUU, led by A.J. Hess' 16 points, had cut a 13-point deficit to five (57-52) with 2:43 to go.
"It was very physical, rough," Webb said. "Hats off to them. They played hard. There were a lot of punches, elbows thrown. It was like an old-school game out there. It was fun."
UND led most of the way but never gained enough separation to feel comfortable.
SUU (8-12, 11-19) shot only 32 percent. And its top scorer, Jackson Stevenett (18.1 ppg) was held to seven. Stevenett had reached double figures in the Thunderbirds' previous 23 games.
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"Defensively, we were dialed in, outside of them getting some second shots," Jones said. "But that's SUU. They're a gritty team. They get garbage points and a lot of 50-50 balls."
UND also received 16 points from Josh Schuler, who hadn't played in a month due to a back injury. And Troy Huff added 15.
But Jones said UND received key points and defensive stops from Jordan Allard (5 points) and Doug Archer (4 blocked shots) -- two of UND's four seniors who were honored prior to the game.
"Our support cast was unbelievable today," Jones said.
And that cast may be called upon again, depending on UND's health entering the upcoming league tournament.
Anderson was scheduled to be evaluated today. If he does have a concussion, it would be the second the team has struggled with this season. Starting center Brandon Brekke missed a good chunk of the season after suffering a concussion against North Dakota State in December.
After the game, Anderson said he hopes to play.
"But I feel kind of sick right now," he said.
