POCATELLO, Idaho - North Dakota picked up its first Big Sky victory as a league member, defeating Idaho State 66-53 on the road at Holt Arena on Thursday night. Aaron Anderson led a trio of juniors in double figures with a game-high 19 points as UND (4-8, 1-2 BSC) won back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Anderson was joined in double figures by classmates Troy Huff and Josh Schuler, who had 15 and 14 points, respectively. Huff's 15 points were a season-high and came off the bench as he continues to work his way back from a jaw injury.
Schuler scored all 14 of his points in the second half that saw what was a 22-point first half lead for the visitors dwindle all the way down to six before a strong showing at the foul line iced the game for UND.
"This was a great team effort," UND head coach Brian Jones. "It started from the opening tip. Our guys showed tremendous energy on the defensive side, shared the ball on the offensive end and we made some the rhythm shots early and gained confidence from that."
UND hit a quartet of 3-pointers early on to build a 12-4 advantage and then would use a 17-2 run over to take a commanding 31-9 lead.
Huff capped that run by making one of two foul shots, but his free throw with 5:50 on the clock would be the final points of the half for the visitors.
The Bengals took advantage of that drought going on an 11-0 run to cut their deficit in half going into the intermission trailing 31-20.
Anderson had a trio of 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes as UND went 6-for-17 from beyond the arc, while the Bengals went just 1-for-9. Huff had eight points off the bench as the UND reserves outscored ISU's 16-2 in the opening half. The bench finished with a 23-6 advantage.
Jordan Allard added five of those points and added a season-high 10 rebounds to pace another dominant effort by UND on the boards. By the end, the visitors held a 43-22 advantage, including 13-3 edge on the offensive glass.
The Bengals would not go away despite their early deficit and pulled to within eight points on a number of occasions in the second half but could never get any closer.
Huff had an emphatic two-handed putback dunk to push the lead back to double figures at 55-45 and Anderson and Schuler combined to go 11-for-12 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the win.
Tomas Sanchez led a trio of Bengals in double figures with 15 points.
UND remains on the road and will travel about two hours south for a matchup with perennial Big Sky power Weber State on Saturday at 8 p.m. CT.
