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North Dakota guard Treysen Eaglestaff explodes for a nationwide D-1 season-high 51 points in Summit League quarterfinal win

Often times, the stars of March emerge from seemingly nowhere, and this year, the man of the month may just be the North Dakota guard who grew up in Bismarck and is currently putting on a show in Sioux Falls. Treysen Eaglestaff did have a moment of fame earlier this season, when his Fighting Hawks pushed Alabama to the brink, ultimately falling 97-90, but Eaglestaff led North Dakota with 40 points in the home loss.

Averaging 19.3 ppg on the season, those who follow the Summit League closely knew the performance wasn’t a fluke, and that was proved to the world on Friday night when Eaglestaff exploded for 51 points, the most by any NCAA Division I player this season, in an 85-69 quarterfinal round upset of South Dakota State in the Summit League tournament.

Eaglestaff scored or assisted on North Dakota’s first ten points, and the fast start never wore off for the junior guard. At halftime, Eaglestaff had 23 of North Dakota’s 33 points, but with his team trailing by five, he must’ve known it was going to take even more in the second half.

It was South Dakota State who controlled the opening action of the second half though, going on a 11-2 run to open up a 49-35 lead. Eaglestaff then scored 18 of North Dakota’s next 23 points, with the other five coming from fellow junior guard Eli King, as North Dakota surged in front to take a 58-56 lead over the conference’s #3 seed. After South Dakota State’s Oscar Cluff tied the game up at 58-58, it was King who hit the three-pointer that would put North Dakota up for good.

Following Eaglestaff’s surge to bring his team all the way back, once in front, the rest of the Fighting Hawks were oozing with confidence. After King’s go ahead-three, Amar Kuljuhovic sank two free throws, King and Zach Kraft each added a three, and a Dariyus Woodson layup put North Dakota up 73-60 with under three minutes left.

Since falling behind by 14, North Dakota had scored 38 of the game’s next 49 points and went back to Eaglestaff to salt away the game. Eaglestaff would score 10 of North Dakota’s final 12 points, the last of which came on a three-point play with 26 seconds left, clinching the upset victory with an absolute dagger.

Now onto the semifinals, North Dakota will face off against NCAA Tournament-ineligible St. Thomas (MN), while after South Dakota secured an upset over North Dakota State, the Coyotes will be the ones to matchup with top-seeded Omaha on the other side of the bracket. While still two games away from punching its ticket to the Big Dance, North Dakota has the star needed in Eaglestaff to make some noise in March.

Other Things to Note:

• Late flurry pushes Illinois past #18 Purdue 88-80 in Friday’s regular season finale
• #6 St. John’s and #20 Marquette meet in Milwaukee to close out regular season (12:00 ET, FOX)
• Plenty of SEC Tournament seeding implications on the line as #19 Kentucky meets #15 Missouri (12:00 ET, FOX)
• #7 Alabama looks to end two-game skid and earn revenge over #1 Auburn in Neville Arena (2:30 ET, ESPN)
• SIUE and SEMO face off to claim the season’s first NCAA Tournament automatic bid in the Ohio Valley championship game (9:00 ET, ESPN2)