Win streak ends for UND men's basketball in 65-47 loss to Kansas City
Feb. 10—GRAND FORKS — The UND men's basketball team dropped its first game in a month in a 65-47 loss to Kansas City on Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, a game the Fighting Hawks never led.
The Hawks' 47 points was their lowest total in a conference game since the 70-45 loss to St. Thomas to open Summit League play.
"Their sense of urgency from the start was noticeably different than us," UND coach Paul Sather said. "It was a physical game both ways, and I just think they handled that physicality better than we did. The numbers that have been in our favor, the hard things that we've really taken a lot of pride in doing, pretty much tell the story."
Sather has preached the importance of rebounding, getting the ball inside and taking care of the ball, all things UND didn't do well in the loss.
The Hawks were outrebounded 32-24 and had just five offensive rebounds, four coming in the first half. The Hawks were outscored in the paint and had 16 turnovers in the game, as did Kansas City.
The biggest factor, though, was UND's shooting struggles. The Hawks shot 34.5% from the field and were just 1-for-12 from three in the first half. UND was better in the second but attempted just 18 total shots.
"We were sloppy at times and kind of let them affect us offensively for sure," guard Eli King said. "At times we handled it pretty well and got good looks. They didn't always go in, but we were getting good shots. Then, at other times, we just got to be better and be stronger with the ball.
"They, defensively, did a lot of things to affect us and take us out of our rhythm. They made everything difficult on us."
B.J. Omot led the Hawks with 15 points and Amar Kuljuhovic had 11 points and nine rebounds. King had 10 points off the bench and six steals in the loss, tying UND's record for steals in a game in the Division I era.
Treysen Eaglestaff was scoreless in the loss, the first game this season he hasn't scored.
Kansas City hit seven threes in the second half and shot 44% on the game from behind the arc. The Roos shot 51% from the floor in the game.
The Hawks are 15-11 overall and 7-4 in the Summit League. UND is second in the conference behind South Dakota State after the loss.
Kansas City leaves Grand Forks 11-15 and 5-6 in the conference after dropping their last two, including an overtime loss to North Dakota State Thursday. The Roos are seventh in the league.
UND is on the road next week at Denver and Oral Roberts, both teams sitting around .500 in conference play. UND beat both teams by more than 10 points at home.
"Just learning from this, understanding that it's just one game," King said. "But we have to bounce back and respond and just take the things that we did well tonight and build off that. Also just clean up the things like the rebounding battle and be better going into Thursday and this next week."
