VERMILLION, S.D. — North Dakota picked up its first Summit League road win of the season with an 86-72 win over South Dakota on Saturday.
Matt Norman got his first start since Dec. 12 against North Central and made the most of it as he led the Hawks with 21 points. B.J. Omot had one of his best games of the season as he scored 17 points and recoesws five blocked shots — the first Hawk to record five blocks in a game since Filip Rebraca blocked eight shots against Milwaukee on Nov. 19, 2019.
This win was the Hawk's third win away from Grand Forks this season, and the first since winning 77-73 at Elon in November.
In the second half the Hawks pushed the lead to double digits as Norman hit the first shot of the second half — a triple to make it 50-40. Later with the score 55-46, a 12-2 run for the Hawks pushed their lead to 67-48.
The run included back-to-back buckets from Tsotne Tsartsidze and a highlight reel dunk from Omot, capped by a layup from Treysen Eaglestaff .
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With 9:06 to go the Hawks took their biggest lead of the day as Tsartsidze hit a jumper to make it 74-52. But over the next few minutes the Coyotes chipped away at the lead to make it a 12-point game at 75-63. But with the momentum going against the Hawks, Jalun Trent made a driving layup to end the run and kept the Hawks ahead by double digits the rest of the way.
For the game, the Hawks shot 49.1 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from downtown while limiting the Coyotes to shooting 40.3 percent from the floor and 23.5 percent from beyond the arc.
UND improved to 2-10 in the Summit and 8-17 overall. South Dakota dropped to 6-7 and 11-14.
— Herald Staff Report
The Trust Project
