CHENEY, Wash.-- North Dakota's senior group paved the way to a 75-71 road win at Eastern Washington Thursday evening to keep UND in first place in the Big Sky Conference. The win was UND's 12th straight on the road in league play as North Dakota improved to 23-2 in its last 25 Big Sky games.
Samantha Roscoe scored 19 points and added nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists to help North Dakota's bench outscore the EWU reserves, 43-19. Fellow senior Makailah Dyer chipped in 19 points as well while the third member of that class, Leah Szabla, scored nine for North Dakota.
"I thought it was a great team effort. I thought our seniors did a tremendous job, changing the pace of the game and really getting after it on the defensive end as well," UND head coach Travis Brewster said. "Eastern Washington plays hard and executes very well. You have to credit our kids for being able to battle and win on the road. It was a great team win."
It was a 14-0 UND run in the early stages of the second quarter that proved to be the difference. With EWU leading, 23-18, North Dakota aggressively drove the paint and racked up a lead as large as nine in that second frame. It started with a Grace Sawatzke finish through traffic and then Leah Szabla drove to the rim for another tough bucket. After Samantha Roscoe gave UND the lead, Szabla converted on a conventional three-point play and then Jill Morton hit a contested jumper in the paint and a triple to cap an impressive run for a 32-23 edge.
EWU (13-10, 8-4) was able to whittle it down to three at halftime and eventually reclaimed the lead early in the third. With the game tied at 48-48 midway through that frame, Roscoe hit a pair of jumpers then Dyer made it a quick 6-0 spurt as UND never looked back. It did get back within a single possession on several occasions, however, North Dakota used a familiar formula of winning close contests (7-2 in games decided by five points or less). Roscoe and Dyer each answered the bell when the game got within a bucket in the middle portion of the fourth. After Delaney Hodgins made it a one-point game with three minutes left, Roscoe converted a running left-handed layup and Fallyn Freije mopped up a second-chance basket for a five-point UND edge with just under two minutes to play.
North Dakota held off the host Eagles in the final minute to earn just its second win in that building. It was only the fourth loss for EWU in their last 23 conference home games.
UND (16-7, 11-1) heads to Idaho Saturday in search of its first-ever win in Moscow, Idaho.
Notes: North Dakota's only other win at Reese Court was in 2014, a win that gave UND a share of the regular season Big Sky championship ... Idaho and Montana State are the only two road venues in the Big Sky in which UND does not yet have a win ... Northern Colorado defeated Idaho, 71-67, Thursday to keep pace with North Dakota atop the conference at 11-1 ... UND has held its last two opponents to a combined 6-for-37 (.162) from 3-point range (2-12 Thursday) ... Conversely, North Dakota has shot 13-for-35 (.371) from deep in that span ... UND has had at least a half-dozen blocked shots in each of the last five games and in nine of 12 conference games this season.
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