As with Thursday night, one of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference walked into the Betty Engelstad arena to face off against the Fight Hawks.

Both times the opposing team would leave empty handed as the UND men’s basketball team took care of business.

This time around, the Big Sky leading Weber State Wildcats were defeated 78-71 by the hot-shooting Hawks.

The game started off as a back and forth affair. Both teams shot around 50 percent in the first half, but it was UND made its mark, especially the bench players.

In the first two minutes of the game, Carson Shanks went 0 for 2 and racked up two quick fouls. Connor Avant would play some of his best basketball in relief of the seven-footer. No. 32 logged crucial minutes during UND’s big run in the first half on both the offensive and defense ends of the floor.

His efforts were equally impressive because of how he held Weber State’s big man Joel Bolomboy in check and did not allow him to have a monster game, similar to his 23 rebound performance earlier in the year.

Adam McDermott continued his hot shooting in the first half with back-to-back threes that ignited the Hawks and the Betty Engelstad Arena.

The Hawks would finish off the first half strong and walked into halftime with a 42-34 lead.

UND would continue the trend of hot shooting and tight defense in the second half even when Weber State started to chip away at the lead.

One of the keys to the game was the fact that the Hawks never allowed the Wildcats to go on any long-winded runs. Whenever it felt as though Weber State was starting to gain some momentum, Geno Crandall or Quinton Hooker would get a big shot or force a turnover.

This trend continued in the final minutes of Saturday’s game. Jeremy Senglin for Weber State nailed two long ranged three point shots that would have made Steph Curry proud and got the Wildcats within seven points with 26 seconds left in the game. That as close as it would get though as Hooker would make one of his ensuing free throws followed by a UND steal and an emphatic dunk by Crandall to put the exclamation mark on the 78-71 win.

Crandall led UND in scoring with 21 points while Hooker chipped in with 18 points on 60 percent shooting.

With a string of impressive back-to-back wins and a 6-2 record in the last eight games, UND has shown it can compete with the best of the Big Sky.

Up next on Thursday, UND will face Eastern Washington at 8:05 p.m. in Cheney, Wash.

Alex Stadnik is the sports editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]