5 hours Ago By Abby Sharpe
GRAND FORKS — Oscar Cluff drew the attention of every Summit League coach after the 6-foot-11 center transferred from Washington State to South Dakota State last year. UND coach Paul Sather was no exception. ADVERTISEMENT Ahead of the Fighting Hawks’ first meeting against the Jackrabbits — a 109-73 loss in Brookings on Jan.
16 — Sather and his coaching staff paid special attention to Cluff. But, as Sather alluded to during Wednesday’s press conference, the Hawks put possibly too much focus on the big man from Australia. Cluff had 12 points and five rebounds in 19 minutes against UND the first time around.
But Joe Sayler led SDSU with 25 points, and Kalen Garry added 12. Isaac Lindsey had 13 points off the bench. “You have to really be careful how much you help,” Sather said.
“As good as Cluff is scoring the ball and rebounding the ball, he’s a really good passer, too. Our bigs have got to do a really good job forcing him out and off that block, and not giving him deep catches, just to shrink the floor for us and guarding their perimeter guys. “We have to try and make him feel us some, but in the same respect you have to guard Sayler, you have to guard Garry, you gotta guard these guys — (Owen) Larson — who are exceptional 3-point shooters as well.
(Cluff) really makes them different.” The two teams will face each other again at 1 p.m.
Saturday at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center as UND kicks off the back half of its conference slate. UND’s defensive struggles were on full display against the Jacks two weeks ago. That’s expected to be a big point of emphasis again for UND, as the Hawks had a week off after their 87-82 loss to North Dakota State in Fargo on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT “I feel like we started out OK,” UND forward Dariyus Woodson said. “Second half it kind of got away from us, and that’s because we just let up defensively. If we can compete and defend, I think we’ll have a way better shot at winning.
” Sather said the Jacks’ ability to easily get downhill against UND’s bigs was “disappointing,” and emphasized that it wasn’t just Cluff who contributed to SDSU’s blowout win. “We have to do a lot better job keeping these guys in front,” Sather said. “But still, Cluff is such a dangerous guy.
“I think he had 12 and 5 against us in limited minutes. He didn’t play a ton against us. I know we’re going to see a different guy inside this game, but we still have to do a good job taking away their 3s and making their life as hard as we can.
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