UND traveled down to Brookings this past weekend to take on South Dakota State. Frost Arena has been a house of horrors for UND, having not won there since 1995, and this weekend proved to be a continuation of that.
Results
Game 1: SDSU 93, UND 72
Game 2: SDSU 85, UND 74
Overall Thoughts
-It was disappointing that the 2nd game wasn’t televised anywhere and you could only stream it through SDSU. I hope that the league will move towards getting these streams on ESPN+ for all conference members, if not on Midco+ for the Dakota schools. One thing that UND fans were used to in the Big Sky was that they could watch all the Big Sky teams on Pluto TV for all sports.
-UND learned a hard lesson that when you play against great teams, you need to bring a full 40 on both ends of the court. If you don’t do that, great teams will make you pay for any lapse. In the first game, SDSU made them pay from deep, going 10-15 from 3 and racing out of a 56-32 first half lead. UND didn’t have an answer on the offensive end to keep things up and couldn’t get the stops defensively. The 2nd half was a better effort on both ends of the floor, but… its hard to make up a deficit that big if you struggle on the offensive end.
The second game was much better as UND played well for the first and last 15 minutes of the game. The middle 10 was a rut on the offensive end. While it didn’t hurt them towards the last 5 of the first half, it hurt them in the first 7 of the 2nd half, where SDSU raced off to an 18 point lead, when the deficit was only 5. UND did cut the deficit to 9 at one point, but couldn’t cut it any farther.
-If you get the first half version of game 1 of SDSU… no one in the Summit is going to beat them. Period. So much for the 16 days off will cause rust theory. You know about Freidel and Wilson, but Baylor Scheierman was a stud this weekend, recording 2 double-doubles. He is a stat-stuff for SDSU and gives them a nice 3rd option to pair with those two studs.
-The big story from this weekend for UND fans was the play of Tyree Ihenacho. This was possible the best he has looked this weekend. You can see the explosiveness that he can bring when he drives to the hoop, he doesn’t need a lot of steps to get to the rack. Even better? He was 5-7 from downtown. This is important, because if he can show that he can hit from 3 consistently (he doesn’t have to be a dead-eye, but just need to do enough to be a threat), this will prevent opposing guards from sagging off. He has done well on the defensive end, leading the team and the conference in steals. Averaging nearly 5 rebounds and 4 assists isn’t too bad either. If he continues to grow and be aggressive, UND will have a big answer to their team and a great secondary option behind Rebraca.
-Speaking of Filip. He had is usual weekend. Scored 14 and 15 points in the two games. He has been Mr. consistent for UND. Made around 50% of his shots. Knew that he was going to have a tough matchup this weekend but he held his own. Another positive sign is that he went 8-11 from the line this weekend. Last 3 games has Rebraca shooting 11-14 from the free throw line (that’s 78.5% people!).
-Nero also had his best weekend in quite a while, scoring in double figures in both of the matchups. His most impressive game was on Saturday, where he went off in the second half. He scored 12 of is 16 points in the 2nd half, and he did that in a 3 minute span. He looks to have responded well since his removal from the starting lineup. Will be interesting to see if he remains on the bench still going forward.
-The rest of the team certainly had their moments this weekend, but there was still some up and down with the players. Sims played well in game 1, scoring 10 points and grabbing 3 steals, but then was saddled with foul trouble in game 2 in the first half and didn’t get his usual minutes. Sueker in his “homecoming game” (Brookings is an hour away from Marshall) struggled in game 1 only score 3 points (and an uncharacteristic 1-3 from the line) but did okay in game 2 (10 points and 6 rebounds, but only shot 4-10 from the field). The hot shooting of Panoam cooled off significantly in both games, but still managed to chip in offensive (dished 4 assists in game 1) and defensively (2 steals in game 2). Igbanugo was okay shooting it from 3 this weekend but was cold from 2, missing drives that he usual makes.
-UND is finally through their toughest part of their schedule and at the halfway point of the season sits right in the middle of the conference standings. The next two weeks will provide opportunities for UND to pile up some wins, depending on which version decides to show up. There is a real good opportunity for UND to firm up their spot in the middle with a couple of good weekends. However… they need to play well.