RENO, Nevada — Southern Utah looked primed to spring the first upset of the Big Sky Conference postseason. Then Quinton Hooker took over.
The North Dakota guard put his team on his shoulders, scoring 13 straight points during one stretch, 26 points after halftime and the final six points of the game from the free throw line as UND avoided the upstart Thunderbirds of Southern Utah. Hooker finished with 30 points and eight rebounds as the fifth-seeded Fighting Hawks moved into the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament with an 85-80 win over No. 12 Southern Utah on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was all about my teammates sticking with me,” said Hooker, a first-team All-Big Sky selection who shot just five times and scored just four points in the first half. “We really tried to come out after halftime and fix some things. My teammates were just cheering me on and they have my back. They looked to me and I made it happen.”
UND guard Quinton Hooker
In a game with eight lead changes and eight ties, Hooker took over with his team clinging to a 55-54 lead with 12 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the game. He scored on a layup and an old-fashioned 3-point play before hitting back to back from beyond the arc as UND pushed the lead to 64-57. The patient junior defaulted to sophomore Drick Bernstine and freshman Geno Crandall for a stretch before exerting authority once again.
“My teammates found me in my spots and when we can get stops and get it going in transition, that’s when we were tough,” Hooker said.
Hooker came into the game averaging nearly 21 points per game against Big Sky opponents and 27.8 points per game for his last five contests. He started slow and did not play much of a factor as SUU took a 41-38 lead to the locker room.
North Dakota head coach Brian Jones has talked all season about how Hooker is his best when he is patient and lets the game come to him. He is “pass first” according to Jones, using his court vision to spread the floor and open up lanes to penetrate. His two layups in transition, which came off Crandall steals, sparked him, then he started rolling.
“When he gets going like that, it makes my job really easy,” said Crandall, who finished with 11 points in his first BSC Tournament game. “It’s really fun to watch and sometimes, you almost turn into a spectator. He makes a play and you’re like, how do you do that?’ It’s something we’ve become accustomed to.”
SUU forward Casey Oliverson
Southern Utah senior Travon Langston scored seven of his 15 points in the final 1:53 minutes, including a 3-pointer with 48 seconds to play to cut the lead to 77-76. But Hooker hit all six of his free throws in the final 25 seconds to put the game on ice.
Southern Utah, a team that struggled all season winning just three Big Sky Conference games, put forth a spirited effort on a neutral court. In previous years, SUU would not have qualified for the championship tournament but this season, all 12 teams advance and the Thunderbirds took full advantage.
“Two years ago, we were fighting for a top seed and they just killed us,” Jones said. “I told (SUU head coach) Nick (Robinson) after the game that I’m so impressed with him and how he gets his kids to compete regardless of what their record is.”
The T-Birds shot 54 percent after halftime and 53 percent overall. Southern Utah battled with the bigger Fighting Hawks, losing the rebounding battle by just one. Behind John Marshall’s relentless attacking, James McGee’s clutch shooting and Casey Oliverson’s deft touch in the post, Southern Utah stayed competitive for the duration.
“What a great game for the first round of the Big Sky Championship,” SUU head coach Nick Robinson said. “What a great experience for the student-athletes to be able to compete for the Big Sky and for us to represent Southern Utah. That was a great college basketball game.
“I’m a big believer in this whether we would’ve been the 12-seed or the 1-seed. This raises the Big Sky Conference. It’s March and anything can happen in March.”
Marshall scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the final five minutes of the game to help buoy the Thunderbirds. Oliverson, one of three SUU seniors, finished 7-of-10 from the floor for 15 points and added a team-best nine rebounds. His bucket with 17 seconds to play cut the UND lead to 81-80 and marked the final bucket of his career.
UND guard Geno Crandall
“We knew we were coming in as one of the lower seeds and for some reason, we like playing with the underdog mentality,” Marshall said. “We came ready to play and played really well. It was a hard-fought game.”
McGee hit four 3-pointers, including three that swung the lead in SUU’s favor. After his 3-pointer to take a 52-51 advantage, UND pushed the lefty off the 3-point line. After Langston’s 3-pointer cut it to one, SUU had three separate chances to tie the game with a triple but settled for twos instead as McGee was face guarded.
“They just got into me,” McGee said. “We were attacking the basket and trying to get me open but it didn’t work out in our favor. We did a good job hanging in and we were right there to the very end. We just didn’t have enough.”
The win pushes North Dakota to 16-14 this season and earned UND a spot in the quarterfinals. The Fighting Hawks will play fourth-seeded Idaho State, a team they swept by an average of 12 points this season.
“There’s no question we have to be better on Thursday but right now, we are just excited to continue to play,” Jones said. “We are grateful for the chance to move on.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
