After splitting at home against WIU, and being lucky to do so, UND went back onto the road to take on a winless Denver squad.
The Results
Game 1: UND 85, Denver 82 (OT)
For the first 16 minutes of the first half, UND was looking pretty good and perhaps this had all the making of a blowout. The offense was buzzing and were doing okay on the defensive side of the ball. The only complaint that could be made was that they were letting Jase Townsend live on the free throw line and getting into foul trouble for some key players. Then the last 4 minutes went down and UND continued to shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers, missed free throws, and letting DU live on the free throw line to crawl their way back into the game. UND had a 34-21 lead with 3:56 to go, but went in to the half with only a 34-29 lead.
Rebraca lead the first half with 8 points and 4 rebounds, but was saddled with 2 fouls. Ihenacho and Igbanugo were behind him with 6 points each. Townsend had 11 points to lead the Pioneers, on 1 made shot. He was 9-10 from the free throw line.
The start of 2nd half was a continuation of the disastrous finish of half 1. UND was in a middle of only score 1 field goal in 8 minutes of play. Meanwhile, Denver was starting to heat up from downtown. In the first 8 minutes of the half, DU managed to hit 5 3 pointers, which propelled them to a 55-47 lead with 12:08 to go. A 21 point swing in 11 minutes of game time. Credit Denver for not packing it in and battling their way back. After that, UND started to get their legs back. They chipped into the lead behind buckets from Caleb Nero and Seybian Sims. The the freshman Ihenacho got to work, driving the basketball to the hoop and getting to the line. After some poor free throw shooting in half 1, UND started to improve in the 2nd half. They finally regain the lead with 7:50 to go in the game. If you wondering where Rebraca was in all of this, well he was saddled with foul trouble the entire game, picking up his 4th foul with 12 minutes to go. He came back into the game with 7:50 to go and proceeded to get fouled and made the free throw to give UND a 59-58 lead. After DU went down and scored to retake the lead, Brady Danielson ripped a 3 in the corner to give UND a 62-60 lead. The big story came with 5:12 to go in the game, when Rebraca picked up his 5th foul. With UNDs best player out, who was going to step up in his absence. First it was Ihenacho, driving to the basket and scoring. Danielson hit another big 3 with 2:37 to go to give UND a 73-69 lead. Ihenacho hit a jumper with 1:08 to go, giving UND a 75-71 lead. It looked really good for UND to escape with the win. However… they got sloppy with the basketball and with 22 seconds to go Taelyer Gatlin buried a 3 to tie it at 75 and force OT.
Story of OT was two players for UND: Panoam and Sueker. Sueker did most of his damage on the free throw line once again, going 5-6 from the free throw line. UND only hit 1 shot in OT, but it was a big one from the senior Panoam. With the team trading the lead for the first 3 minutes, Panoam buried a 3 with 1:59 to go to give UND an 81-79 lead. A key defensive play by Igbanugo with 32 seconds left, stealing the ball from Townsend, allowed Panoam to shoot 2 free throws, which he made, to give UND an 83-79 lead. While Denver was able to get the lead down to 1 with 13 seconds left, they for whatever reason couldn’t foul until there was 1 second left. Problem: Sueker was the one who got fouled and he didn’t miss his free throws. A half court heave was missed and UND escaped with an 85-82 OT win.
Game 2:
DU 85, UND 81 (OT)
The first half was quite possibly the best shooting half of the season. They shot 60% from the field, and nailed 7 3’s in the first half! Nero was off to a hot start on the bench, Ihenacho was dealing from the point, and despite foul trouble, Rebraca was still scoring in his limited minutes. They build another double digit lead, although Denver chipped away at it towards the end, it didn’t seem like it would be a different situation.
The second half….. Lets talk about that. UND came out and hit 2 out of their first 3 shots. Looked like they were ready to finally get that weekend sweep. Then… UND missed 15 straight shots. That’s not a misprint. 15 straight shots. They had a 13 minute spread where they didn’t make a field goal. They only scored their points on 4 free throws. When they made their last field goal, it was 18:20 to go in the game and they were up 49-37. 8 out of the 13 minutes in that drought, DU was able to chip away at the lead again, but they just couldn’t take advantage. However, when you have a drought this long, eventually teams will take advantage. With 10:23 to go, UND hit their last free throw and was up 53-45. DU ripped off a 13-0 run to take a 58-53 lead. With 5:45 to go, Rebraca finally made a jumper to break the field goal drought. UND did managed to tie it back up at 62 with 3:51 to go. For the last 3:51, it was a see-saw battle between the two teams. Seybian Sims hit a 3 with 57 seconds left to take a 69-67 lead. Jase Townsend hit a jumper with 45 seconds left to tie it. Either team couldn’t score the winning basket, so OT we go.
Overtime was quite the high scoring affair, as both team started off hot from the field. While UND made 4 straight shots, Denver was perfect from the field. They were 5 for 5 in overtime, including 3 of 3 from downtown. The dagger came with 30 seconds left as Townsend nailed a 3 to give the Pios an 83-79 lead. Sims made 2 free throws to cut the lead to 2, but Denver sealed the deal with 2 more free throws and won their first Summit game of the year.
Overall Thoughts
-I hope that next season that ESPN can make a deal with the Summit League to get all the teams in the league to stream their home games. Other leagues, like the Horizon, can get this deal, so I hope the Summit can do the same, especially with St. Thomas coming onboard.
-This was a tough weekend for Rebraca. He just couldn’t stay out of foul trouble in both games. Its rare for Rebraca to foul out once… let alone twice. The 2nd half of Saturdays game you could really see the frustration affect his game and he fouled out on a free throw attempt. Even with that, he still got his usual average!
-Seybian Sims had a decent weekend and is starting to come around on the offensive side of the ball. He had his 2nd double-double of the season on Saturday, scoring a career high 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. In his last 4 games, he has shot 55% from the field and 46.6% from 3 and 72.7% from the free throw line.
-After a tough weekend, Tyree Ihenacho continues to grow as the 2nd option behind Rebraca. He had his best night of his UND career, dropping 19 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists on Friday (although he had 6 turnovers). He had 14 points on Saturday and dropped 6 dimes. Hope to see him on the all-newcomer list when it is all said and done
-Ethan Igbanugo had a nice scoring game on Saturday, scoring 15 points on 4-7 shooting and making all 5 of his free throws. He was a big part of the scoring in OT, scoring 6 of the teams 14 points. Been averaging 10.7 ppg in the last 7 games and shooting 37.5% from 3.
-Panoam continues to bring great energy in the starting lineup and his timely 3 point shooting continues to lead the team. He hit a big time 3 pointer in overtime on Friday and he also scored 5 out of his 8 points in that frame. He had a better night on Saturday, scoring 11 points. So far in conference play, he has been shooting just under 40% from 3. He has been the biggest surprise this year for UND and continues to be a great story of perseverance and always being ready for your chances.
-Mitchell Sueker once again had a big night at the free throw line on Friday. He went 10-11 from the free throw line, including going 5-6 from the free throw line in overtime. He definitely has the knack for the moment. If he can just get that outside shot going, that will really unlock his game.
-Its time to give some love to sophomore Brady Danielson. He is a guy who give 100% on the court and has a knack for doing the little things that can help a team win. The one drawback has been that his outside shot really hasn’t been falling. On Friday, that changed as he nailed 2 big 3’s in the 2nd half that helped UND. He had 9 points in the game. It was nice to see him have a big game.
-Caleb Nero continues to produce from the bench. He came out firing on Saturday, hitting his first 3 shots. He scored 7 first half points for UND. He has shown his ability to take over the game in stretch in the past couple of weeks, UND is going to need more of that going forward on the offensive side.
-UND continues to have issues with putting together a full 40 during the game. They have been showing some really great moments and the offensive side of the basketball has greatly improved since the insertion of Panoam in the starting lineup, especially from 3. However, they still have these 10-12 minute stretches were they just play terribly. Can’t make a bucket, play poor defense and mental errors. They are good enough to play and beat some of the better teams in the conference but have shown that they can lose to the bottom.
-Its back to the rivals for the final home games (hard to believe it already here) as UND takes on USD.