Faber: 5 takeaways from UND's 67-66 Summit League tournament semifinal win over St. Thomas
· Yahoo Sports
Mar. 8—SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — UND pulled off a nail-biting 67-66 win over St. Thomas in the Summit League tournament semifinals Saturday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
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Junior forward
George Natsvlishvili sunk the game-winning free throw
with 0.1 seconds remaining.
The Fighting Hawks will take on North Dakota State Sunday at 8 p.m. in their first title game appearance since 2020.
Here are five takeaways from the Hawks' semifinal thriller.
UND made just enough winning plays at the very end to pull out a win.
That's something that the Hawks have done throughout the conference season. Just ask the Tommies, who lost to UND on a last-second basket from senior guard Eli King on Jan. 29.
The Hawks beat South Dakota by a point on Feb. 11. They beat Omaha by three on Feb. 5. They beat Kansas City by two on Jan. 10. They beat South Dakota State by three on Jan. 3.
UND has a luck rating of .122, according to KenPom. It's a stat that measures the deviation between a team's winning percentage and its expected winning percentage, based on game-by-game efficiency.
Is it really luck if it just keeps happening, though? If that's the case, head coach Paul Sather might want to try his hand at slots, or maybe a table game.
"At the start of the year, we were losing those games," redshirt freshman Greyson Uelmen said. "I think that totally built us for this. Ever since conference play started, we totally have changed at the end of games, where we've been playing very well."
The Hawks are 11-4 with Uelmen, King, senior guard Garrett Anderson, redshirt sophomore guard Zach Kraft and junior center Josh Jones in the starting lineup.
They've won seven straight with those five starters.
Jones and Anderson both missed games in February, a month where UND went 3-4.
The Hawks seemed to have picked up right where they left off with both back in the lineup for the tournament.
"The injuries that we've had with Garrett and Josh slowed us a little bit," Sather said. "I don't know what our record was without Josh, but I think we lost a few, and just his physicality, it matters what he does — his calm, just the things he does. I just feel like throughout this conference season we kept building on that identity, and making winning plays."
King is going to need all the rest he can get before the championship game on Sunday.
The Summit League Defensive Player of the Year logged 39 minutes against St. Thomas.
King shot 5-for-10 from the field and scored 17 points. He also tallied a steal, two assists and four rebounds.
King hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie things up at 54-54 with 7 minutes, 15 seconds left in the second half. Naturally, he also provided elite defense throughout the night.
As of March 6, UND had the fifth-best turnover margin in the nation at 4.7.
The Hawks' aggressive defense has consistently provided extra possessions this season, while the offense has done a nice job taking care of the ball.
But on Saturday, St. Thomas had 16 more field-goal attempts than UND. The Tommies grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, while the Hawks finished with just one.
UND and St. Thomas each finished with nine turnovers.
The Hawks had to lean on their defense, which held the Tommies to a 25-for-60 shooting performance from the field.
It also helped that UND shot 50%.
The Hawks have played North Dakota State twice this year. They lost both comfortably.
NDSU beat UND 83-66 at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Feb. 14. The Bison dominated the Hawks 96-63 in the regular-season finale on Feb. 28.
North Dakota State beat the Hawks in the Summit League tournament championship in 2020. This is UND's first appearance since that defeat.
The Hawks will have to be at their best if they have any hope of besting their rivals for an NCAA Tournament bid.
"We sure haven't played them very well," Sather said. "We've got to come out with a little bit different mindset for 40 minutes than what we have, and just fight better. But they're very good, they've got a really good two-big rotation going. They've got great size with their guards and physicality, and they can really shoot the ball well. And then they are really on, shooting it well, they've proven they can beat anybody, and beat anybody pretty handily. So we've just got to worry about us."