CHENEY, Wash.-Eastern Washington bolted to a 30-8 lead and used that surge to down UND 95-71 on Thursday night in a Big Sky Conference men's basketball game.
The loss dropped UND to 2-6 in the Big Sky and 7-13 overall while EWU improved to 5-3 and 10-11.
EWU started the game on a 17-2 run and led 30-8 eight minutes into the game.
Dale Jones led UND with 14 points.
"We didn't come ready to play, which is disappointing because I thought we had a good week of practice," UND head coach Brian Jones. "They came out and shot lights out early, which you have to expect in their building.
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"We settled down and played better in stretches, had a good start to the second half, but when we got (the deficit) down to eight points, we made them miss again, but could not get the rebound and they turned that into a 3-pointer. That was a key play in the game."
The Fighting Hawks opened the second half with back-to-back treys to close within single digits for the first time since early in the contest, but Cody Benzel would connect on a trio of 3-pointers over the next two minutes to end UND's rally.
EWU's Brogden Bliznyuk finished with 28 points to lead all scorers. UND's Geno Crandall added 12 points while Conner Avants added 11 to round out the trio of Fighting Hawks' double-figure scorers.
The Eagles finished 38-for-72 from the field and knocked down 15 three-pointers, while UND shot 45.1 percent from the field and went 8-for-17 on 3-pointers.
