North Dakota

Coyotes drop road game 96-80 at North Dakota

Published

1 month ago

January 18, 2026

Coyotes drop road game 96-80 at North Dakota

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (USD) — South Dakota basketball fell on the road Saturday afternoon 96-80 to North Dakota Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

Jordan Crawford put together one of his best performances in a Coyote jersey with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting and knocked down 6-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc. He also dished out four assists and had three rebounds. Cameron Fens recorded his third straight double-double, and fourth game in a row with 11+ rebounds, with 13 points and 14 boards.

Isaac Bruns had 21 on the day, his fourth straight game with 20+ points, and had four rebounds. Uzziah Buntyn added eight points and four assists, while Silas Bennion had 10 points and three helpers.

North Dakota recorded a 54.8 shooting percentage, was 12-of-26 from deep but just 4-for-7 from the free throw line, while USD shot 47.2% from the field, 10-of-22 from beyond the arc and 20-for-24 from the charity stripe. UND held the edge in offensive rebounds (13-7), points in the paint (50-28) and had fewer turnovers (6-13).

North Dakota shot 57.1% in the first half, as they held the lead for the majority of the opening 20 minutes. The Coyotes held a 43.3 shooting percentage but knocked down all nine attempts from the free throw line to stay within eight at the intermission. The Fighting Hawks grabbed their largest lead late in the half, 47-32 with 2:16 remaining before the Yotes answered with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit back to single digits. UND closed the half with a layup under 10 seconds to take the eight-point lead into the locker room.

Bennion, in just his fourth game as a Coyote, continues to get more comfortable in the South Dakota system, as he scored 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting with one triple in the first half. Bruns led the way with 12 in the first half for USD. Greyson Uelmen and Eli King had the hot hands for the Hawks with a combined 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting.

Fens and Bruns scored the first 10 points of the second half for the Yotes, but North Dakota expanded its lead to 68-51 over the first nine minutes of play. Crawford caught fire in the second frame with 16 points on 5-of-5 shooting with four treys, but the Fighting Hawks held off the USD comeback attempts on their way to a 96-80 win.

The Coyotes will hit the road for their next two games starting this Saturday against North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Notes

South Dakota improves to 10-10 on the season, 2-3 in the conference and 0-8 on the road
Jordan Crawford set a new career high with six made 3-pointers and hit the 20-point mark for the second time this season with 24 today
Cameron Fens notched his third straight double-double and fourth game in a row with 10+ rebounds
It was Fens’ sixth double-double of the season
Isaac Bruns poured in his fourth straight 20+ point game, his 12^th of the season
The Yotes have made 8+ 3-pointers in seven straight games

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North Dakota

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Published

1 hour ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Kalamazoo — There’ll be a new champion in the NCHC.

Will Zellers scored the game-winning goal in the third period as No. 3 North Dakota downed No. 4 Western Michigan, 5-3, Friday night at Lawson Arena. The Broncos never led and trailed all of the third period, though a late push nearly tied the game with the net empty.

“Overall in the game, I thought it was a pretty tightly contested effort. I thought they just scored too easy,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “You know, for us, we had a couple breakdowns, and they’re so talented, so good, they took advantage when we broke down.”

The teams finish the regular season Saturday night. Western Michigan came into Friday’s game tied with Denver in standings points and five points behind North Dakota, needing that many to get a share of the Penrose Cup it won last season en route to an NCAA championship, too.

As far as regular season results go, the Broncos will play for second seed in the NCHC Tournament, needing to outpace Denver, which plays Arizona State this weekend.

Western Michigan (23-9-1, 15-7-1 NCHC) goaltender Hampton Slukynsky made 16 saves on 20 shots in the loss while North Dakota’s Jan Spunar stopped 22 of 25 shots. It was a battle of two of the NCHC’s top netminders, and each made key stops in a tight-checking, physical game.

Zellers put North Dakota (25-7-1, 17-5-1) up 4-2 4:42 into the third period off an assist from Detroit Red Wings draft choice Dylan James.

“He kind of made a play out of nothing there,” said North Dakota coach Dane Jackson, who is in his first season as head coach after being on the coaching staff since 2006. “And that was a really nice kind of moment where you go OK, we got a little got a little leeway here, and we can just kind of play a little bit more free.”

North Dakota took a 3-2 lead into the third period with goals from defenseman Sam Laurila alongside forwards Ollie Josephson and Josh Zakreski. Defenseman Zach Bookman and forward Liam Valente scored for Western Michigan.

One too many times in the second frame, Western Michigan’s blue line let a North Dakota forward in all alone to face Slukynsky, who stopped a couple of rushes in the opening minutes of the period.

With four minutes until the intermission, the Broncos finally got burned. On a feed from linemate Anthony Menghini, Lakreski cut to the glove side of a sprawling Slukynsky and beat him with the backhand. The goal gave North Dakota the 3-2 lead, after a seeing-eye shot from Bookman along the right wall had tied it up two apiece 8:10 into the period.

“I actually thought the second period was our best period,” Ferschweiler said. “… We started to take over. We got the goal, tied 2-2, and are kind of just humming along. Four minutes left, we just hand them a goal. Blown coverage. That was inexcusable, honestly, with some of our better players on the ice.”

The opening period played out as a back and forth track meet through the neutral zone as each side settled in. Laurila put North Dakota up 1-0 with his first career goal. After Slukynsky denied him on a trio of tries earlier in the shift, he fired a shot to beat the Western Michigan netminder 4:40 into the game.

It took just a minute and 34 seconds after Laurila’s opener for Western Michigan’s top line to get it right back. A blue-collar shift from captain Owen Michaels fed linemate Will Whitelaw along the left boards, and he sprung Valente for a breakaway goal that evened up the score.

“I thought we gave it to them too easy a couple times tonight,” Whitelaw said. “And I think when you’re playing a team like that, obviously they’re gonna put it in your net. But I think it’ll be a big lesson for our group going forward.”

For the better part of the first period, the Lawson Lunatics peppered North Dakota defenseman Jake Livanavage with jeers, but he got his own licks in with 7:48 left in the first period as he fed Josephson right at the net for the 2-1 goal. That score held through the first period.

With 2:02 remaining and Slukynsky pulled, forward Zaccharya Wisdom pulled Western Michigan within one. He nearly had the equalizer with 40 seconds on the clock on a backdoor try, but he mistimed the shot. Mac Swanson scored an empty-netter with 20.7 seconds on the clock to clinch the win, and with it the Penrose Cup, presented to North Dakota in the locker room and then paraded around the ice.

“It’s the hardest regular season championship to win, in my opinion,” North Dakota forward Ben Strinden said. “So it’s awesome. Obviously, it’s not our end goal, but we’re going to enjoy it for sure.”

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

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