POCATELLO, Idaho - Two weeks ago, UND faced the prospect of playing four straight games on the road in the Big Sky Conference.
UND was 5-3 at the time and hoped to at least split the four games. And that’s just what happened as UND downed Idaho State 80-75 on Saturday night at Holt Arena.
North Dakota made a bunch of 3-pointers early and enough free throws late to pick up the win. UND improved to 7-5 and 10-12 overall while the Bengals dropped to 5-7 and 8-13.
It was the second straight season that UND swept Idaho State.
ADVERTISEMENT
Senior Troy Huff led four UND double figure scorers with 22 points and 18 of those came in the first half as UND jumped out a 46-37 lead at the break. Huff made four straight 3-pointers at one stretch in the opening 20 minutes that saw UND lead by as many as 13.
Senior Cole Stefan and junior Lenny Antwi also hit key 3-pointers early on as UND nailed 8-of-15 from beyond the arc in the first half.
Stefan finished with 11 points and hit a floater in the lane midway through the second half that gave UND the lead for good after the Bengals had grabbed their first advantage of the game.
Stefan would later hit the only 3-pointer of the second half that stretched UND’s lead back to eight, 65-57, with just over four minutes to play. Stefan’s corner three capped a decisive 9-3 run by UND.
“Our bench was huge both in the first half and second half,” UND coach Brian Jones said. “I think that was the difference in the game. Lenny (Antwi) came up big for us in the first half and Cole made some big time plays after the break.”
UND overcame a dominate effort by Idaho State on the glass that was spearheaded by junior Jeff Solarin, who finished with 23 points and a career-high 20 rebounds. Idaho State outrebounded UND 47-19.
The Bengals had 27 second-chance points that helped them make their comeback, but UND shot a season-high 60 percent from the floor (27-for-45) to capture their third Big Sky road win of the season.
Alonzo Traylor added 11 points for UND as the bench once again came up big with a 39-10 advantage. Senior Aaron Anderson added 10 points to round out UND’s double-figure scorers.
ADVERTISEMENT
UND will return home for a pair of Big Sky games this week, Thursday against Montana State and Saturday against Montana.
