SWSiouxMN

2 good looks at 3 for UND couldn't cash in.

All Avants to start 7-4 UND

Avants again with the shot 5--2 UND

nice move by Avants to draw the foul, get the bucket and complete the 3 point play

Early score update from Fort Wayne The Dons are up 48-35 at the half over ORU

Same starters for UND from the DU game Stewart, Brown, Seales, Avants, Walter.

UND finally got their first win in conference play as they just destroyed a struggling DU team. UND will now start a 3 game homestand, starting with I-29 and old NCC rival... OMAHA! OMAMA! About Omaha: The Mavericks are led by long time coach Derrin Hansen, who in now in his 14th season. He currently has an overall record of 214-196 record. Since moving to the Summit, he has an overall record of 93-110 and is 41-54 in the Summit. Picked 8th in the Preseason, Omaha has gotten off to a nice start with wins over DU and NDSU at home. When I look at Omaha, I see a number of things. First of all: They have a very balanced starting lineup. All 5 starters in their lineup are averaging double figures in scoring. Secondly: This is a team that can score in bunches and can shoot the 3 ball very well. In the 3 games so far in Summit play, the Mavericks are averaging 44% from 3 as a team... not too shabby. However... they also give up a lot of points and are not the best rebounders. Lastly, while their starters are pretty solid.. the bench lacks a serious 6th man. If Omaha wants to make a surprise run this year, they need to develop a bench Key Player: JT Gibson (6'3 Junior) I could have chosen any of the Maverick players to fill this spot but went ahead and chose the Junior from Brooklyn Park, MN. This guy is going to do most of his damage from behind the arc and he is very good at it (42% clip, good enough to be in the top ten in the Summit in that category). Can get a few assists and rebounds from time to time but UND cannot afford this guy to get into rhythm early. UND Keys to the game: 1) Keep the Omaha shooters out of rhythm 2) Dominate the boards 3) Make enough outside shots 4) Win the bench points Other Summit Games: ORU (3-0) @ Fort Wayne (3-0) -Battle for first place in Fort Wayne, Can the Dons protect home court? Or will the Golden Eagles continue their surprised early start to the season. DU (0-4) @ SDSU (2-1) -SDSU took out archrival USD and DU continues to slump after the doors got blown off against UND. Can SDSU continue DU's woes? WIU (1-2) @ NDSU (1-2) Both teams looking to get back to .500 and establish themselves in the middle of the pack. The Call: UND needs to look at this stretch of games as an opportunity. They blasted a conference opponent and looked good in doing it. Now they need to build off of that performance. Omaha is going to get points and has the feel of a track meet. I don't think UND can win that way. I think UND gets enough shooting and slows Omaha done enough to get the win UND 81-74

I'm here

80-59 Final Good job UND, now carry this performance with you into the homestand. Winnable games are there to be had.

76-51 UND 3:29 to go time to send in the reserves. Looks like UND is going to get its first Summit Victory in Denver.

73-45 UND 7:24 2nd

This has become a runaway UND 70-43 Moody up to 21 Its about time they had a game like this

Heating back up again 65-40 UND 11:34 to go 11-22 from 3 18 from Moody, 14 from Avants, 12 from Walter

Good response and the lead is back up to 19. TO DU 57-38 13:15 to go

Not a good start to the 2nd half still up 49-36 14:54 to go

Half UND 44 DU 25 UND shooting 48.5% from the field and 47.1% from 3 That will get the job done Moody and Brown dialed in from distance. UND also forced 13 Pio turnovers verses 4 from UND

About bloody time they got off to a good start 39-20 UND with 3:32 to go in the half

Walter and Stewart starting over Rebraca and Panoam

UND could not solve the inside tandem from ORU and dropped their 2nd conference game of the season. Now they travel up to Denver to take on DU, who is not having the start to their season that they would have desired. Picked 3rd in the preseason polls, Denver had high hopes of potentially being the team that could cause SDSU problems... right now they are trying to figure out how they can not fall into a 0-4 hole to start conference play. Losses to Omaha, WIU, and a buzzer beater to USD, have the Pios reeling in the early conference season. In those losses, their opponent was able to shoot a high percentage either from the field (WIU) or from behind the 3 point line (Omaha, USD). Opponents are hitting 3's at a 41% rate, which is not a good number for a defense to be giving up. So those chances will potentially be there for UND. DU also hits 3's at a 37.5% rate, which is good for 4th in the conference. Key Player: Joe Rosga (6'3 Senior) The 1st Team all Summit Player is a guard that can do a little bit of everything. However his primary weapon is it scoring ability. His numbers are slightly down from his usual averages so far this year, but he is still one of the better 3 point shooters in the conference. He doesn't get to the line often, but when he does you might as well put the two points on the board. Can produce the 5+ rebound or 5+ assist game if you don't respect that part of his game. UND will have to watch him and make sure he doesn't go off. X-Factor: Ronnie Harrell Jr. (6'7 Senior) Another skilled big that UND seems to have trouble with so far in early season conference play. Can step out and knock down the 3 ball and is the teams best rebounder. Can dish a few assists but also is a little turnover prone. The Creighton transfer has done a decent job so far but appears to be hot or cold to start the conference season. UND needs to make sure he stays cold. Keys: 1) Can UND get off to a good start? When was the last time UND came out roaring out of the gate and jumped on an opponent? It honestly would be nice for them to do that right here to perhaps get them some confidence and potentially avoid this: 2) Can UND avoid the killer lull In a lot of the competitive games, UND manages to get themselves in a 8-10 minute stretch of bad play, bad turnovers, cold shooting and poor defense. Its the trademark of an inconsistent team, which UND is showing to be with 11 new players. At some point however, the team needs to figure it out and its getting to that time. Its time they put together their first full 40 of the season. Summit Thoughts: 1) Fort Wayne is in first and has a win over SDSU. Holy cow, the Dons might be a legit threat to the Bunnies. 2) ORU and Omaha are off to decent starts, will they be able to keep it going? 3) DU is 0-3, who would have seen that coming? The call: The first two conference games for UND have mostly been carbon copies of each other. Struggle with skilled big men, have an 8-12 lull in play to fall behind. Figure it out and come back but can't make that one key play or one key stop on their opponent and they push away for the win. Somebody's 0 has got to go here today. All the signs here point to a DU win, tbh. However, I think they finally put one together. Heart: UND 79-77 Rest of the Body: DU 81-73 Unless you get Altitude2, you are not going to be able to watch it... which makes me very sad.

I didn't get a chance to watch it last night (had something come up last minute) so I am watching the replay now. What I noticed: -I thought I was done with the SUU style of replays... WRONG! -ORUs Big just had their way with UND on the inside. What I don't understand was that at any point, why did UND not try and double them? 20-25 from the floor between those two. 40 points in the paint verses 28 for UND. -I liked the minutes that Saddler played at the end of the half. Did a good job battling for rebounds on both ends -With that said: UND rebounded very well. Yes: ORU was +3 but that would be expected when you make more of your shots. UND limited the offensive rebounds for a 2nd game in a row to just 3. UND has to shoot better from 3... 9-28 is not good. Didn't like how the ORU shot was guarded on the last shot of the 1st half, they needed to slow the guard down. Too easy of a shot. Once again, had another killer stretch of turnovers and bad play that resulted in a deep hole that they just couldn't climb out of. I'll give them credit for battling back, with Ethan and Elijah being the sparkplugs. They need to learn to make that one play that can get them over the hump. I liked what they had planned against their zone. I felt for the most part they executed that part well.... expect making enough shots. Walter and Rebraca had tough games: Rebraca needs to take care of the ball and be decisive on what he is doing. 11-0 in Fastbreak points... transition is not our thing this year? Start Marlon please. Don't just start Panoam and then yank him a minute into the game. No need for that. Why is Seales shooting 3's? Nice game by Avants at least on the offensive end in his home state, especially in the 2nd half. This team is a box of puppies: One minute they are doing good things, the next... crapping on the floor. I'm getting concern that this team might not make it to Sioux Falls.

For your Summit League Action Tonight Omaha takes down NDSU 90-77. Mavs off to a 2-1 start, could have been 3-0 USD gets a layup with 7 seconds to go and downs Denver 71-70. The Pios are now 0-3 to start Summit play.

http://oruathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2018-19/boxscores/20190102_amoc.xml

Oh No... they do replays like SUU....

In the first conference game, UND fell behind early and despite a 2nd half run, couldn't close the deal against Fort Wayne. Now UND embarks on their first road trip of the Summit League, as they head down to Tulsa to take on Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles are coached by 2nd year man Paul Mills, who is currently 16-32 as a coach at ORU. He is currently looking to improve the Eagles from their 11-21 record from 2017-18. This is a long cry from the glory days under Scott Sutton, who helped turn the Golden Eagles into a Summit League power. This year, off to a better start in conference play, as they went into Omaha and got the conference opening win. With a homestand against UND and WIU upcoming, they would love to start the year 3-0 in conference play. They were picked 6th in the preseason poll, one spot above UND. Taking a look at ORU, one thing comes to mind. They have some length. Looking at their starting lineup from the Omaha matchup: 6'0, 6'7, 6'8, 6'8, and 6'10. They also had 2 players with significant minutes off the bench, who were both 6'8 and 6'1. I can see why they love to run a 2-3 zone defense. Their length can cause major problem if the zone is running on point. Key Player: Emmanuel Nzekwesi (6'8 Junior) Picked as a Preseason 2nd team All Summit, the big man has so far lived up to the billing. He had a big night against Omaha, dropping 28 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. He is currently averaging 15.2 ppg and 7.9 rpg on the season. His 7.9 rpg is 4th best in the conference. He appears to be the traditional big man role, he will step out and shoot it from time to time but he doesn't seem to be a major threat from 3. This will be a good matchup for not only Avants but for Rebraca as well. These two need to do a good job on the rebounding battle. X- Factor D.J Weaver (6'8 Freshman) The Freshman is your example of a stretch-4. He is the major 3 point threat for Oral Roberts, taking 89 out of the 108 total shots from downtown. He is shooting around 44% from 3, so he is proving to be quite the marksman. Omaha learned that one the hard way, as he set a career high in three pointers made with 7. He also went 7-10 from 3. His 39 3's are third best in the conference behind Jenkins of SDSU and Gibson of Omaha. Milestone 1 - Seales needs 1 more point to get to 1000 career points and unless he suddenly gets sick or falls off the earth he will get it in this game. Key to the Game: Usually I would include a few there, but there is only one important one here. How does UND handle the Golden Eagle's 2-3 Zone? This is really all there is to it. UND cannot afford to be passive and tentative in the zone. UND needs to push the ball in transition, they need to hit the open shots when they are in the weak spots of the zone. They need to attack the gaps of the zone and be decisive in their passes. Off the ball: They cannot be standing around, they need to be active. Lastly: Stick someone in the middle of the zone. This is a Cortez Seales game written all over it. Rebraca and Avants need to be ready to rebound, as there will be plenty of 2nd chance opportunities. Walter, Brown, and Moody need to stick their shots from deep. Marlon needs to slash and attack this zone. The length is going to be a problem, but if UND can combat it, they can win this game. Other Summit Games 1/2 NDSU (1-1) @ Omaha (1-1) This is the matchup of: good weekend but could have been a great weekend" teams. NDSU took down USD and had Fort Wayne on the ropes.... then they stormed back and beat them. Omaha defended the homecourt with a win against Denver and stormed back against ORU... only to lose at home. USD (0-1) @ Denver (0-2) This is the matchup of: Teams looking to restart their seasons. USD is coming off a disappointing loss in Fargo, while DU is coming off losses against Omaha and Western Illinois. The teams picked 2nd and 3rd in the Summit need to get it going, they can't afford too many losses if they want to live up to those expectations. 1/3 SDSU (1-0) @ Fort Wayne (2-0) In this block of game, this is the matchup of the night. Fort Wayne looking to make an early statement that they can potentially challenge the Jacks at home and are coming off a sweep of the NoDak Schools. SDSU looking to build off of their destruction of WIU. WIU is off in this block of games The Call: If UND can solve the zone and Rebraca and Avants can do a solid job against Nzekwesi, UND can get this win the road. However, if they fall into the "Death By Zone" they ORU will march to a 2-0 record in the Summit. I think they will hit enough shots, Seales feasts on the soft parts of the zone and UND comes away with the road W. UND 79-75 I think the game will on here and it might be free (the women's game will be on tonight, so we can know for sure). ORU already has a thread up on the game already. https://portal.stretchinternet.com/oru/ https://forum.orusports.com/index.php?/topic/10939-north-dakota-at-oru/

I think ORU might have one on their site (I think it is free).