The season looked lost. UND had lost three games in a row following a big upset over South Dakota State.
Two of the losses were to Denver and Kansas City who are at the bottom of the Summit League.
UND gained some traction by beating up on Summit League cellar dweller Oral Roberts at home. Then upsetting North Dakota State 79-77 at home last Saturday.
Like Head Coach Paul Sather said a couple of weeks back, “if you figure it out the last regular season game and the first round of the Summit League Tournament, and all of a sudden you get a run going… anything’s possible.”
It marked the second time in a row UND had beaten NDSU at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
Junior guard Eli King, who had the game-winning block as time expired, talked about the importance of the win.
“Yeah, it [the win] means a lot,” King said. “I think a little bit of momentum, continuing, and trying to build off that.”
King filled the stat sheet with nine points, eight rebounds, and five assists to go along with his big-time block.
Junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff took over in the second half scoring 20 points for a total of 27 in the game. He went 5-6 from three.
“I feel like the bigger games give us more energy,” Eaglestaff said. “I think the bigger crowds give certain guys energy, and it helps us a lot if its on the bench or playing. Doesn’t matter how many minutes people get just matters how hard they come out.”
“Again, like King said, it’s a momentum thing and I think it’s going to shift into our next few games here and then hopefully go to the Summit League tournament,” Eaglestaff continued.
UND wants to focus on its mentality during this final stretch.
“When our mentality is right as a team and we come in and focus on every single possession and focus on the defensive end and playing at a high level, obviously things go better,” King said.
UND will need all of its players to step up in order to make a run in a very open Summit League Tournament.
Mambourou Mara, Mier Panoam, and Deng Mayar all stepped up against NDSU. Mara had 11 points with four rebounds.
Panoam had nine points and eight rebounds including a clutch rebound and an and-one to put UND up 79-77.
Mayar also stepped-up scoring 13 points with seven rebounds.
“The message just keeps being we believe, and let’s keep fighting and get better at playing 40-minute complete games,” Sather said. “Mistakes will happen, but your mindset can be right all the time.”
Sather emphasized wanting to see more consistency both mentally and physically in games.
“You can’t wait for just big moments in life to show up, you just need to show up every day and work,” Sather said. “To these guys credit they have been. We just haven’t been as consistent in games as we should be.”
UND will look to find that consistency riding a two-game win streak going on the road to St. Thomas on Thursday, and South Dakota on Saturday to finish out the regular season.
“I keep trying to tell them every game is a big game,” Sather said.
Elijah Andrews is the Dakota Student Sports Reporter. He can be reached at elijah.andrews@und.edu.
