In my humble opinion, the best posts that writers can make are the ones previewing the season, building the excitement for the season ahead.
It is also easy to say that the worst ones are the ones when the season is over. Tonight, we write the worst one.
UND took on Oral Roberts in the first round of the Summit League tournament and behind a great defensive effort and contributors from role players, the Golden Eagles were able to move on in the Summit League Tournament.
UND came out defensively with one goal in mind, do not allow Abmas to get any clean looks from 3. To their credit, they actually did a great job in limited his looks from 3. In fact, he went 0-6 from downtown and only got 1 or 2 great looks from 3. He did most of his damage from inside the arc, scoring 20 points (on 15 shots).
Kyle Obanor was also limited in the night with foul trouble, only scoring 9 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.
So you would think UND would have a great chance to win right given those two parameters? Well….
The story of the game was two fold: ORUs role players stepped up to pick up the slack on the offensive end, and UNDs struggles on the offensive side of the basketball.
With all of the talent that ORU has on the offensive side of the ball, they aren’t as consistent on the defensive side of the basketball and that has been their biggest issue. Tonight, they brought a great defensive effort. They forced UND into 14 turnovers, 9 of them in the first half. They made things very difficult for Rebraca down low and guarded UND very well.
So how did ORU manage to win without Abmas and Obanor having huge nights. DeShang Weaver did it to UND once again, scoring 18 points off of the bench and gave ORU a punch at the end of the first half to push their lead to double figures. He used the mismatch against Panoam to his advantage and did work from the mid-range and from 3. Kareem Thompson also had 16 points to give ORU another solid scoring option. Carlos Jurgen rounded out the players in double figures with 11, but grabbed 7 rebounds and stepped into the role vacated by the Glasper injury.
UND had been playing an improved brand of basketball on the offensive end of things but tonight looked very similar to the effort they had in the 2nd Tulsa game. They came out a little rusty missing their first few shots and committing several turnovers. Sueker and Nero helped to right the ship a little bit off of the bench and even UND took a lead in the first half, but outside of those two, the offense was stagnant. Rebraca unusually struggled right out of the gate and then took a shot taking a charge against Obanor that needed 16 stitches to close up. He was out for the rest of the half and really wasn’t the same the entire game. There was some moments in the 2nd half where UND might have clawed their way back into it, even getting to as close as 6 points in the late stages, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Mitchell Sueker led the way with 11 points and 7 rebounds and was 1 of 4 players who had 11 points. He had a highlight dunk along the baseline in the 2nd half. Caleb Nero also had 11 points and provided another scoring option off of the bench that kept UND in the game. Seybian Sims was perfect from the field going 5-5 and scoring 11 points. The last player with 11 was Bentiu Panoam. Although he struggled from the field, he was able to get to the line a lot in the 2nd half and went 9-10 from the line, a bright spot in a mediocre effort from the free throw line (if you take his 9-10 out, the team went 6-15 from the line… ouch). They struggled from 3 (3-16), which didn’t help matters and the 14 turnovers hurt more, and being outscored 15-4 in the points off of turnovers category.
Did the 15 days off effect the squad? The defensive effort was there for the most part. I mean they held ORU to 20% from 3, that’s pretty good work. It just seemed that the offense wasn’t doing what was needed to be successful and some of the turnovers were ones that they weren’t really making before the break. However, ORU defended very well and make things even more difficult for UND.
UND ends their season at 9-17 and 8-8 in the conference. While they didn’t have the deep run like last year, they finished with a better record in conference play than last year. I’ll have a few posts recapping the season and giving a look ahead to 2021-22 during the next week or so. Until then, I’ll enjoy the rest of the tournament and then turn my attention to the undefeated and top 5 ranked UND football team and UND hockey’s drive for a 9th national title.