OMAHA, Neb. - UND’s season - again - came to an end in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Omaha of the Summit League downed UND 91-75 in a first-round CIT game at Raltson Arena on Wednesday night. The Mavericks, 17-14, now advance to a second-round CIT game this weekend.
UND ended its season 17-17. North Dakota entered the CIT after a second-place finish in last week’s Big Sky Conference postseason tournament in Ogden, Utah.
The loss was UND’s fourth straight in CIT play.
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UND entered the game without two players, 6-foot-8 Jaron Nash and guard Josh Schuler, two regulars. Point guard Jamal Webb played, but he was listed as doubtful after hurting his knee in the Big Sky tournament. He managed to log 17 minutes.
The Mavericks dominated inside as 6-8 Mike Rostampour finished with 16 points and 21 rebounds. He was four rebounds short of the program’s single-game record set by Nate McMorris during the 1975-76 season.
Alonzo Traylor led UND with 15 points, while Aaron Anderson finished with 13 and Troy Huff 12.
Huff, however, reached the 2,000-point mark during his UND career, finishing with 2,005 points. He is the 11th active player to reach that mark and ranks third all-time on the UND scoring list.
Omaha gained separation late in the first half.
The Mavericks were the fresher team and it showed late in the first half when the home team made its decisive run. The teams went back-and-forth through the first 13 minutes of play.
After Lenny Antwi gave UND a 27-26 lead with 7 minutes to go, the Mavericks outscored UND 16-7 to close the opening half. That spurt allowed Omaha, which had not played since March 1 when they were bounced from the Summit League tournament, to build a 42-33 lead at the break.
UND couldn’t dent that lead in the second half.
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With 10 minutes to play, Omaha, led by John Karhoff’s 17 points, was up 66-47.
UND also struggled from the field, shooting 41 percent (29-for-71). Behind the arc, UND was 7-for-18.
With Omaha getting good looks down low, the Mavericks shot 55 percent (33-for-60).
The Mavericks also outrebounded UND 43-30.
The game was the last for seven UND seniors, Huff, Anderson, Traylor, Schuler, Webb, Nash and Brandon Brekke.
The seven helped build UND’s program into a contender for the Big Sky title.
In its two Big Sky seasons, UND won 24 of 40 games. Last season, UND reached the Big Sky semifinals before reaching the championship game this season.
UND seniors finished out their careers with 69 victories and four consecutive CIT appearances.
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“These seniors have done so much for this program and brought us through the transition,” UND coach Brian Jones said. “We wanted to get this one for them to keep it going for at least one more game, but I’m proud of them for what we accomplished over the past four seasons.”
