North Dakota will take on Kansas City Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at the Swinney Arena in Kansas City. Fans can follow all the action on the Oral Roberts Sports Network, as well as by tuning into Paul Ralston’s call on the Home of Economy Radio Network.
Series History vs. the Roos
Thursday will be the 11th meeting between the Hawks and the Golden Eagles—Kansas City owns a 7-3 edge in the series and won three of five Summit League meetings. UND took the last meeting between the clubs, a 77-60 win in Grand Forks in which the Fighting Hawks set a program record with 18 threes made in a single game—with their first 11 baskets being from downtown.
Last Time Out
North Dakota had their three game winning streak snapped by Oral Roberts Thursday night 73-70. Despite trailing at the break by 22 points, the Hawks went off in the second half and made it as close as one point following a 37-11 run. Treysen Eaglestaff led the team from beyond the arc—going 5-5 to lead the team with 15 points. Tsotne Tsartsidze had his third double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and also led the team with six assists. It was his ninth straight game in double figures, while Matt Norman had 12 points to make it a dozen games in a row with ten or more points.
Bench Boost
North Dakota enters the matchup with the most bench scoring in the Summit League and is No. 40 team nationally in that category. The Fighting Hawks are averaging 25.29 points per game from the reserves this season. The next closest bench in the league is Omaha with 23.82.
Shaking it up
North Dakota used their ninth different starting lineup combination of the season the last four games (Jalun Trent, Matt Norman, Brady Danielson, B.J. Omot and Tsotne Tsartsidze), which equaled the number of different combinations used last season. On the team, Tsartsidze has the most active consecutive starts currently with 48, followed by Omot with 28. Danielson and has started the last 15 games and Trent the last 13.
