In a night where the UND men’s basketball team needed a win to keep pace in the competitive Big Sky Conference, Troy Huff — along with the rest of the team — stepped up his game.

After an 84-72 loss against Weber State last Thursday, North Dakota learned from its experience and came out on top Saturday in an 80-75 decision over Idaho State.

Huff came out of the gate hot Saturday, shooting four of five from the field and finishing the first half with 18 points. He also was a perfect four for four in free throws in the first half, and finished the game six of eight from the charity stripe.

Huff led the team early, but the game also featured other players. North Dakota shot 60 percent from the field and showed a strong first half of shooting form the three point line.

Although Cole Stefan only had 11 points, he had shots in the second half that stopped the run Idaho State was on and started a run for UND.

Jaron Nash threw down dunks, Alonzo Traylor knocked down big shots and Lenny Antwi came up big late in first half by swinging the momentum back to UND after the Bengals made a run at the lead. These plays made the win a balanced team effort.

“Our bench was huge both in the first and second halves. I think that was the difference in the game,” UND coach Brian Jones said.

The Green and White only collected 19 rebounds on the night, compared to 47 for Idaho State — 26 of those offensive rebounds.

Bengals forward Jeffrey Solarin was a big part of that, collecting 20 total rebounds — 12 offensive and eight defensive — to go along with his 23 points to lead all scorers for Idaho State.

Weber State

Thursday featured a different result.

While UND had some bright spots, the team could not withstand No. 1 in the conference, Weber State, losing 84-72.

The score may reflect a beat down, but Weber State had their hands full at times with the Green and White. Every time UND would go on a run, Weber State would counter with a run of its own.

The Wildcats were dominant, taking advantage of UND’s smaller roster. Kyle Tresnak and Joel Bolomboy took over for Weber State in the second half, with Bolomboy getting the double-double  — 20 points and 10 rebounds — and Tresnak scoring 16 points and netting three furious blocks.

Davion Berry also showed why he is one of the top scorers in the Big Sky as he went for 21 points, 11 of which came in the second half.

While it was a relatively down night for the Green and White, Jaron Nash showed a bright spot as he had a career night for the team, scoring 27 points off of a solid 12-21 shooting, and was one rebound away from achieving his first double-double of the season. Troy Huff also had a commendable outing, with 19 points and 10 rebounds — giving him his fourth double-double of the season.

UND’s starters combined to score 13 points all game, nine of those points coming from Aaron Anderson.

The team also was at a disadvantage on the defensive end, letting the Wildcats run all over it in transition and playing porous defense in the lane.

With this solid team win Saturday, though, UND can now focus on the rest of the Big Sky schedule. Next week, the team looks to continue winning conference games with two home games against Montana State on Thursday and Montana on Saturday.

Alex Stadnik is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].