GRAND FORKS – North Dakota mens basketball aims to build off of last Saturdays four-point home win against Kansas City as South Dakota trips up to Grand Forks for a Summit League matchup. It’s Dollar Dog Night inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center with the Hawks and Coyotes tipping off at 7 p.m. Fans can follow the action live with UND men’s basketball radio play-by-play voice Paul Ralston on KSNR 100.3 FM The Cat or on the iHeart Radio app, while the action can be seen on Midco Sports and the Summit League Network. Live stats will be provided at www.FightingHawks.com.

SERIES HISTORY
The 202nd matchup between North Dakota and South Dakota commences on Thursday night. UND holds a 106-95 lead in the series which first tipped off in January of 1923. The Hawks entering having won three-straight against the Coyotes after sweeping last season’s series and a win on Thursday would be the 60th for UND at home against South Dakota.  

SIX THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA
1) Winthrop is the only team in the country that attempts more free throws than the Coyotes. USD leads the Summit with 28.4 FTA per game, while its near 20 makes from the stripe per game are also a league best and the fourth-most nationally.
2) USD enters Thursday night’s tilt with the league’s best and a top 10 scoring offense nationally at 85.9 ppg.
3) The Coyotes protect that basketball at a league-best +3.0 turnover margin in addition to forcing a league-high 10.3 turnovers per game.
4) The Hawks are the only team in the Summit averaging more offensive boards per game than the Coyotes’ 12.95. 
5) USD leads the Summit in bench points per game with a top ten mark nationally at 35.10.
6) Chase Forte leads the Summit in steals (36) and steals per game (1.80) and in FTA (154; 5th DI) and FTM (98; 22nd DI). His 15.9 ppg leads the Coyotes, while Isaac Bruns follows with 14.0 ppg. 

PEAK CHASIN’
St. Thomas and Omaha remain unbeaten as the two sides square off on Thursday night for the league lead. North Dakota State and South Dakota State each have two losses with South Dakota and Kansas City both 2-3. The Hawks are 2-4 and a game up in the win column on Oral Roberts, while Denver is winless through six league games.  

In early October, North Dakota was tabbed to a sixth-place finish in the Summit League preseason poll. The Hawks were one of six teams to receive a first-place vote and totaled 283 points in a wide open Summit League rankings. North Dakota was just 22 points back of projected No. 5 Oral Roberts which received two first-place nods. St. Thomas edged the Golden Eagles for fourth, while Kansas City (17), South Dakota State (12) and North Dakota State (3) went 1-2-3. The squad’s sixth-place appointment, the second highest for UND under Sather, in the preseason rankings is one spot back of last season’s fifth-place selection and matches the Hawks’ placement prior to the start of the 2020-21 season.

The nine-member mid major league produced a collective non-conference record of 69-64. Four Summit League teams, including North Dakota, enter league play on winning streaks with North Dakota State’s eight-game streak pushing the Bison to a league-best 11-4 start. Kansas City has won four-straight, while Omaha joins UND as winners of their past two.

LAST TIME OUT
Sophomore guard Mier Panoam delivered his second double-double of the season with a 21-point, 10-rebound effort and North Dakota employed a gritty effort on the defensive end of the floor to earn a 76-72 Summit League victory over visiting Kansas City on Saturday afternoon from inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

The physical contest saw 13 ties and ten lead changes, the time leading differed by just over two and a half minutes and the back-and-forth affair came down to the last handful of possessions. Panoam dribbled down into the right elbow, gave a slight shoulder fake to engage his defender and then spun around his opposition for an easy finish and a key bucket late as the Hawks grabbed a 73-69 advantage with 29.2 seconds remaining.

North Dakota was not in the clear yet as the Roos’ Jayson Petty sank a top-of-the-key look to pull KC to within one at 73-72 with 18.4 left. After a pair of free throws from junior guard Eli King pushed the Hawks back up by three at 75-72, a defensive stop was in order for UND to hold off the preseason Summit League favorite Roos. The Hawks responded with a stop as the opposition attempted to initiate contact which led to a turnover and a 1-of-2 result from the line by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff which put the game on ice.

The final stop by the Hawks prior to Eaglestaff’s FT was the second of two key plays defensively by UND in the final minute of action. The first came with just under 45 seconds remaining as a nearside inbound play on the Kansas City end resulted in a corner three opportunity with the Roos trailing by a bucket at 71-69. However, on the inbound, a flashing Deng Mayar forced a mid-air clutch which resulted in a travel call and led to Panoam’s game-changing spin and drive to the basket.

The Roos led by seven moments following the halftime break and North Dakota’s largest second-half lead stood at six at 63-57 with 5:03 to play. KC got as close as tying the contest at 69 with 71 seconds left, but Panoam netted a pair of free throws to give UND a lead it would not relinquish.

MIER-IAD OF POINTS
Sophomore Mier Panoam can score and since the calendar has turned over to 2025, the Tulane transfer has been filling up the box score. Panoam enters Thursday averaging 19.3 points per game, the fourth-best clip in Summit League play, with four 20+ point games and two double doubles. In that stretch, Panoam is shooting 52.4% (44-of-84) from the floor and 74.3% (26-of-35) from the free throw line. He scored a then-career high 24 points at home against Omaha, followed that with his first career double double of 20 points and 12 rebounds against St. Thomas and then bested his Omaha outing with 28 points on a career-best 12 made shots in the road win at Denver. Against Oral Roberts, he added 13 points and at South Dakota State he registered ten for his seventh-straight game in double-figure scoring and 14th this season. Two days later, he recorded his second double double as ten rebounds accompanied a 21-point performance in a much needed home win over Kansas City.

Additionally, Panoam has delivered 48 rebounds, 20 assists and five steals. 

A MILE HIGH FOR SEASON HIGHS
UND’s win over the Pioneers was the 21st road win for UND in Sather’s tenure and the 34th against Summit League opposition. The Hawks’ 95 points were the most against a Division I opponent this season, the third time UND has crossed over 90 points and the seventh time a Sather-led UND squad has dropped 90+ points in Summit League action. UND netted shots at a season-best 51.6% effort from the floor and posted season highs in free throws made (24) and free throws attempted (32), while UND’s 13 steals were the second-most this season, the most against a DI foe, and just the second time the Hawks have recorded 10+ in a game this season.

HANDLE WITH CARE
The Hawks are +3.0 in turnover margin in Summit League play which is currently the second-best such mark in the conference. UND has turned the basketball over less than nine times in four of its six league contests and has committed nine or fewer turnovers in six of their past eight games. UND’s 1.45 assist-to-turnover ratio in six SL contests is the third-best clip in the league. 

THE BIG O
Following his historic effort against #6 Alabama and a home win over South Dakota Mines, junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff was named the Summit League Peak Performer of the Week for the second time this season and for the fifth time in his career. 

Additionally, Eaglestaff’s efforts were recognized on the national stage as he was one of five players named an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for games of the week ending Sunday, Dec. 22. Eaglestaff was joined by Donovan Dent (New Mexico), Caden Pierce (Princeton), Erik Reynolds (Saint Joseph’s) and Bruce Thornton (Ohio State). He is the first Hawk to receive the honor since the award’s inception began during the 2009-10 season.

DROPPED 40 & PICKED UP 1K
Eaglestaff’s scoring clinic against Alabama ended on a step back, near corner triple try that tickled twine to not only bring UND to within three points of the Crimson Tide lead late, but gave him a Betty Engelstad Sioux Center scoring record and a career best single-game effort in addition to pushing him to 1,000 career points. He is the 39th player in program history to reach the mark and the 12th to do it in UND’s Division I era (2008-09).

TOP SCORER
Eaglestaff is one of the top scorers in the Summit League ranking third with 18.1 points per game (66th DI) and is 13th in the country in total points with 380. He ranks 35th nationally in field goals (127) and 12th in field goal attempts (307) both of which lead the Summit League.

Additionally, he ranks 26th nationally in three-point attempts (148) and 70th nationally in three-point makes (50). His 2.38 made three-pointers per game are the fourth-most in the league.

Eaglestaff scored in double-figures in his first 17 games of the season crossing over the 20-point mark in seven of those. He finished his sophomore campaign reaching the double-figure scoring mark in the final six games for a streak of 23 games with 10+ points. 

HOT PURSUIT
Eaglestaff eyes a move up the program record books as he is currently fifth in career three-pointers with 187 which makes him the program’s leader in made three pointers among players that played their entire career in UND’s D1 era. The Bismarck native is 13 made threes away from becoming the fourth player in program history with 200 career made three-pointers. Additionally, Eaglestaff moved into third all-time on the Hawks’ D1 three-point attempt list and he is currently fourth on the all-time list. Eaglestaff continues his climb up the scoring charts and sits at #32 with 1,117 career points. He 14 points shy of entering the program’s top 30. 

KRAFTHREE
Redshirt freshman Zach Kraft hammered a trio of triple tries in UND’s battle with the Crimson Tide and since that performance, the Grand Forks native has nestled into a significant role coming off the bench for the Fighting Hawks. 

Prior to Kraft’s efforts against Alabama, the guard had totaled just 48 minutes played, was 2-of-6 from range and had contributed two rebounds and a pair of assists.  

Since then, a span of nine games, Kraft is averaging 15.9 minutes per game and is shooting just under 47% from the floor with 45 of his 49 attempts coming from deep. His 44.4% success rate from three-point range is the best among all Hawks during that stretch as are his twenty made three-point shots. Additionally, he has chipped in with seven rebounds, five steals and four assists. 

1KULJUHOVIC
Senior forward Amar Kuljuhovic reached a personal milestone at Utah Valley. The Waterloo, Iowa product crossed over 1,000 career points in his collegiate career with a 13-point night against the Wolverines. He recorded 624 points in two seasons at Lake Land College and currently has 492 points in 52 games as a Fighting Hawk. 

The scoring milestone isn’t the only one in reach for Kuljuhovic as he is 80 rebounds shy of 1,000 for his career. He registered 511 at LLC and currently has 409 as a Fighting Hawk with 150 coming on the offensive end of the floor. 

Kuljuhovic’s rebounding efforts through 21 games has him rated third among Summit League players in total rebounds with 142. He also ranks third in offensive rebounds per game (3.19) and fourth in rebounding average (6.8). Additionally, Kuljuhovic ranks fifth in free throw attempts with a team-leading 97 and tenth in made free throws with 65. 

DARIYUS FROM DEEP
First-year Fighting Hawk, Dariyus Woodson, a TJC transfer and Baytown, Texas native, holds a pair of top 10 rankings among Summit League three-point shooters as league play commences. Woodson ranks fourth in the SL in three-point attempts with 119 and ninth in makes with 37. His 1.9 makes per game ranks 14th in the SL, while his overall scoring average of 10.8 ppg is a top 20 mark among all league scorers. 

ROAD HAWKS
Eight of North Dakota’s 15 non-conference games were outside the state. UND’s meeting with Eastern Washington bookended a five-game stretch away from Grand Forks with three of the five standing as true road contests. The Hawks’ west coast tip-off against Loyola Marymount marked the first time in program history that UND men’s basketball contested in each of the four time zones of the continental United States prior to December.

Including UND’s in-state neutral site affair against Dickinson State in Bismarck, the Hawks flocked nearly 11,000 miles during the first five weeks of the season. The Hawks’ first-semester travel totaled over 16,200 miles during its non-conference slate.

BUSY STRETCH
The Hawks endured a busy ten-day stretch prior to the Christmas holiday. North Dakota started with UVU in Orem (L, 57-80) and capped the stretch on Friday, December 20 against South Dakota Mines (W, 80-48) in Grand Forks. In between, the Hawks traveled to Texas-San Antonio (Dec. 13; L, 76-80), hosted Texas-San Antonio (Dec. 15; L, 85-95) and battled #6/7 Alabama to the very end (Dec. 18; L, 90-97) inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. 

NOW BOARDING
The offensive glass has been controlled by UND in 17 of the squad’s 21 games and the Hawks have been out-rebounded on the offensive glass twice. 

UND has grabbed 12+ offensive rebounds in every game but its season opener at Colorado State. Eight Hawks have recorded 10+ offensive boards this season led by Amar Kuljuhovic’s 63. Brian Mathews follows with 40 and Mier Panoam rounds out the top three with 38.

North Dakota ranks 9th nationally in offensive rebounds per game at 14.76; a mark that leads the Summit League. The squad’s overall rebounding average of 38.90 ranks second in the league and is in the top 50 nationally. Overall, the Hawks have out-rebounded their opposition 13 times this season. 

SEEING DOUBLE
A Hawk had yet to record a double-double of any kind entering the Big Sky-Summit Challenge on December 4. However, following a pair of matchups with Big Sky opposition, two different Hawks got in on the double-double production. The following week, two Hawks finished with double-doubles in the road loss at UTSA and two days later Deng Mayar joined Amar Kuljuhovic as Hawks with two such efforts so far this season. 

Amar Kuljuhovic produced 17 points and a dozen rebounds in a road loss at Eastern Washington. He added two assists and a block in 31 minutes. It was his ninth double-double as a Hawk. 

Three nights later, Natsvishvili played two dozen minutes and erupted for a dozen points and ten rebounds in a career night for the sophomore and first-year Hawk. He the contest having scored just seven points with 11 rebounds across seven games totaling 60 minutes.  

Against the Roadrunners, Kuljuhovic produced his tenth double-double as a Hawk with ten points and 11 rebounds with nine on the offensive glass. Deng Mayar matched the effort with ten points and 11 boards of which seven were on the defensive end of the floor and two nights later Mayar recorded a second double double with 14 points and ten rebounds.

Sophomore transfer guard Mier Panoam became the fourth Hawk this season with a double double as his first such performance ended with 20 points and 12 rebounds as he flirted with a triple double by adding six assists against St. Thomas in the Summit League opener. Most recently, Panoam went for 21 points, his fifth such game this season, and added ten rebounds in a home win vs. Kansas City.

FEAR MIER
Panoam has provided a big spark for the Hawks in year one in Grand Forks specifically with his ability to get to the basket. In addition to his torrid start to Summit League play, Panoam ranks second on the team with a top 12 scoring mark in the Summit League at 13.4 ppg. He holds top 10 league rankings in field goal attempts (220, 8th), rebounds (118, 6th), free throw attempts (97, 5th) and free throw makes (68, 9th) and is responsible for seven of UND’s 23 three-point plays. His 102 made field goals are the seventh most in the Summit League. 

MORE MAYAR
Deng Mayar registered back-to-back double double efforts in a weekend home-and-home with UTSA. In two games against the Roadrunners, Mayar averaged 27.1 minutes and shot 53.3% (8-of-15) from the floor with a 50% (3-of-6) rate from three-point range. He went 5-of-7 from the line to average 12.0 points over the pair of contests. Mayar led UND in rebounding with 10.5 boards per game, including the second-most offensive rebounds at eight. 

THE BOOK OF ELI
Junior Eli King knows his way around a box score. The Caledonia, Minnesota native has been active on both ends of the floor and done a little bit of everything for North Dakota in 21 games this season.

King has played no fewer than 20 minutes in 19-consecutive games with 11 of those games at 30 or more minutes. He recorded a career-high 37 minutes in the home win over Weber State. In that victory, he scored in double figures for the second time this campaign with a season-high 13 points to go along with two rebounds, two steals and an assist. The double-figure scoring effort was the 11th of his UND career.

In 598 minutes, the second-most among Hawks, King is fourth on the team in offensive rebounds with 29, which included six against Notre Dame, and owns the third-highest rebounding average at 5.0. King’s 104 total rebounds rank eighth in the SL. He has a dozen games this season with 5+ rebounds and four games with 3+ steals including five vs. Waldorf. He holds a team-high mark in steals (29) and paces UND in offensive fouls drawn this season with 14. His total steal count ranks third and his steals average of 1.4 ranks fourth in the Summit League. 

UND BY THE NUMBERS
35- The number of Summit League wins for the Hawks under head coach Paul Sather. The Hawks won a program-best 10 Summit League games a season ago and have won seven or more league games in a season three times under Sather.
19.3- The average number of points per game scored by Mier Panoam six games into Summit League action. He delivered three-straight games of 20+ points to start conference play, four total since January 1 and has a pair of double doubles.
13- The number of three-point makes needed by junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff to reach 200 for his career. He would become the fourth player in program history with 200 or more makes from three-point range and the first exclusively Division I player in program history to do so.
9- UND’s national rank in offensive rebounds/game. The squad’s mark of 14.76 leads the Summit League. UND has grabbed a dozen or more offensive rebounds in 20 of 21 games this season which is the most by a Sather-led UND team.
6- The number of conference-only statistical categories that sophomore guard Mier Panoam ranks inside the Summit League’s top seven in. Panoam’s 19.3 ppg ranks fourth, while his 8.0 rebounds per game ranks third. He is shooting 52.4% from the floor (6th), is averaging 3.3 assists per game (4th) with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio (5th) and is averaging 0.7 blocks per game. 

A UND WIN WOULD
» Be the 107th all-time against the Coyotes
» Improve UND’s win streak against USD to four games
» Could potentially move the Hawks into a tie for fourth place in the Summit standings pending other outcomes
» Improve UND to 36-55 vs. league foes under Sather
» Be better than a loss