It wasn’t all that pretty in the first half for NDSU which could be expected with a lot of new faces playing in their first game as a Bison, but the team apparently shook those jitters off in the locker room at halftime and came out and lit the nets up in the 2nd half to cruise to a 98-64 win over UM-Crookston in their season opening exhibition. After Crookston opened a 5-0 lead to start the game, the Bison looked to settle in and built a nice 23-10 lead with just over 13 minutes to go in the half. Then some of the ugly parts of having a young team started to creep up. Simple mental mistakes leading to turnovers, missed free throws and some missed easier open shots all lead to a sloppy offensive output that saw NDSU only score 15 points in the final 13:06 of the first half.
The 2nd half was an entirely different story, after a 3-10 effort from behind the arc in the 1st half the Bison caught fire from 3 point land in the second half shooting 12-24. The hot shooting from the outside combined with Andrew Morgan and Grant Nelson dominating on the inside lead to a 60 point half which has to be one of the highest scoring halves from NDSU in quite some time.
Andrew Morgan was my player of the game and dominated from start to finish. He called it a night after 19 minutes in which he totaled 22 points on a highly efficient 8-9 from the field including 1-1 from 3 and grabbed 7 rebounds. When Morgan got the ball in the post he either scored or got to the free throw line nearly every time and also went 5-7 from the charity stripe. The NDSU offense will continue to run through him as they go forward and it’s in good hands.
Grant Nelson did Grant Nelson things all night with a couple emphatic dunks and finishing with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks even though he only went 1-4 from downtown. Skunberg struggled a little bit with getting some of his jumpers to fall only going 4-10 from the floor but was 2-3 from beyond the arc and did a little bit of everything finishing with 10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in a solid all around performance. The final returning player that saw time tonight with Dez McKinney still rehabbing his ACL tear was Joshua Streit who is playing with a lot more confidence in a key role this season and played really well with 6 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
The stars of the night were always going to be the new faces in an exhibition to see what they bring to the team and boy Lance Waddles and Tajavis Miller put on a show and did not disappoint. Miller started hot hitting his first 2 threes and finished 6-10 from downtown, 6-12 overall with 18 points and Lance Waddles shot 4-7 from 3 and 6-10 overall scoring 16 points, both chipped in 3 rebounds a piece as well. These guys were absolutely on fire during stretches of the game. With the NDSU offense likely running through Morgan and Nelson, it’s important to be able to punish teams for trying to double them in the lane and it sure looks like the Bison have some shooters on their hands to do just that.
With Demari Wheeler-Thomas still coming back from an injury it was Luke Yoder’s show to start at the point guard position and after looking a little shaky to start, he settled in and looked like the experienced player NDSU was hoping he’d be when they brought him in. He pushed the ball well, got the team into the offense and posted a terrific line of 7 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds and most importantly only 1 turnover.
Jacari White struggled a bit in his first D1 outing going 0-4 from the field and making a couple of careless turnovers but played solid on ball defense and did finish with 3 assists and a block. Noah Feddersen had 2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in a quiet but efficient 15 minute debut. Sam Hastreiter got hit in what appeared to be his eye fairly early in the game and did not return but stayed on the bench for the entirety so hopefully nothing serious to come of that. Walk-on Ryan Sletten got a chance to get in the game for the final 3 minutes but couldn’t covert on either of his 3 point attempts to get himself points in the box score.
The challenge gets significantly tougher for the Bison men as they head to #10 Arkansas on opening night of the college hoops season Monday at 7PM in a game that will be broadcast on SEC+ and ESPN+. Should be one heck of a challenge for this team and one they are certainly excited for. Let’s hope this team can light up the nets on Monday like they did tonight and give the Razorbacks a run for their money. Go Bison!