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North Dakota State limited South Dakota to 15 first-half points en route to a 65-46 win Saturday at Bison Sports Arena. TrayVonn Wright scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Bison (18-5, 9-2 Summit). Brandon Bos had 16 to pace South Dakota (8-15, 4-7).
North Dakota State led 14-11 with four minutes left in the first half. The Bison closed the half on a 10-4 run to make it a nine-point lead at the break. Nate Zastrow came off the Bison bench and hit back-to-back 3-pointers during the stretch to account for his six points.
Long possessions created a small number of scoring chances in the opening stanza. The Coyotes were 7 of 20 from the field and 1 of 8 from three-point range in the first half. USD’s second-leading scorer, Trevor Gruis, was saddled with two fouls and didn’t attempt a shot. Gruis scored all 14 of his points in the second half.
Brett Vandenbergh hit two treys early in the second half that made it 34-19 with 16:43 to go. The Coyotes scored the game’s next four points, but Vandenbergh hit again to make it 37-23. Vandenbergh finished with four 3-pointers and 14 points.
North Dakota State shot 57 percent in the second half and 51 percent for the game. The Bison hit nine 3-pointers and had a 27-24 edge on the boards. Marshall Bjorklund had nine rebounds to go with six points.
Gruis, Bos and Juevol Myles combined to score 38 of South Dakota’s 46 points. The trio was 14 of 29 from the field. The rest of the team was 3 of 14.
The Coyotes were the highest-scoring team in the league heading into the game at 78 points a contest. The Bison, though, were allowing an average of 55 points for the 11th-best mark in the nation.
Courtesy: Bryan Boettcher, USD
