Bobcats Drop Home Tilt to UND

Saturday, January 18

Bozeman, MT

7:05 pm

Montana State University

4-29-8/ Big Sky

NORTH DAKOTA

3-36-10/ Big Sky

North Dakota

Montana State

Antonio Biglow attempts a jumper against North Dakota

Photo by: Ruth Shellenberg

1/18/2014 10:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Flavien Davis scored 25 points to pace MSU

By: Bill Lamberty

North Dakota built an 11-point lead early in the second half and Montana State could never get back to even, as the Bobcats fell to UND 72-69 in Bozeman on Saturday.

UND benefited from the Bobcats' 7-for-13 effort from the free throw line in the second half, out-rebounding MSU 33-to-26. Still, it was hard to pinpoint one factor that handed UND its first road win of the season and its third straight win in Bozeman.

"Mistake here, mistake there," said MSU forward Flavien Davis, "missed free throw by me, offensive rebound by them, two clutch free throws by them, good defense at the end. One (MSU) mistake led to another."

Montana State led 38-36 on a Michael Dison three-pointer with 3:17 to play before intermission, but North Dakota scored the last six points of the half to take a 42-38 lead at the break. It marked the first time the Cats trailed at halftime of a home game since the season opener.

UND scored seven of its last eight possessions before halftime, and on five of its first seven after the break. In all, UND strung together an 18-5 run to open a 54-43 lead. Bobcat center Paul Egwuonwu cited North Dakota's man-to-man offense as a key.

"They did a good job with their on-ball (screens)," Egwuonwu said. "We had trouble guarding them all night. Once we switched to a zone we were able to disrupt all that, make a run, and get back into the game."

That process began quickly. Davis converted an and-one and followed that with a basket and hit three frows out of four after an intentional foul and a shooting foul. That pulled the Cats to 54-51. After UND rebuilt the lead to 59-51 at 12:07 Stephan Holm and Egwuonwu made layups. Aaron Anderson's three pushed UND's lead back to seven, but layups by Dison, Davis and Egwuonwu pulled the Bobcats within one. The UND lead never grew bigger than five the rest of the way.

The Cats pulled to within one on Davis' layup with 48 seconds to play, but he missed the ensuing free throw. MSU forced a missed three-pointer by Josh Schuler, but it missed so badly that the carom gave the Cats no chance for a rebound. Anderson converted two free throws to stretch UND's lead to three.

MSU inbounded with five seconds left, but Holm's trey came up short and UND had escaped with a win.

Davis scored a game-high 25 points for MSU, while Paul Egwuonwu added 14. Anders paced UND with 18 points.

The Bobcats drop out of first place with the loss, falling to 9-8 overall and 4-2 in the Big Sky. North Dakota is now 6-10 overall, 3-3 in the league.