Chris Mangan

The first Summit League men’s basketball game between former North Central Conference rivals North Dakota State and SDSU turned into a rout early on, and the Jacks could not recover in a 90-63 win by the Bison at the Bison Sports Arena in Fargo, N.D., Jan. 25.

The Bison (11-9, 5-4) used a 22-2 run early in the first half to jump out to a 56-28 half time lead. The only time the Jacks led the game was when sophomore Kai Williams hit a three to open the game, but it was all NDSU from then on.

Pierre native and former SDSU recruit Michael Tveidt fueled the Bison attack in the first 10 minutes of the game, scoring all of his 16 points in that time, including all four of his three=pointers attempts. He was 1-16 from three entering the game. The Bison shot close to 64 percent and made six of 10 three pointers in the first half.

“They came out and played great,” senior forward Ben Beran said. “We didn’t come out to play. Our defense was lacking, and they were lights out.”

“When you get on a roll like that, it is hard to overcome, especially when you are at home and have a great crowd behind you,” said Bison guard Ben Woodside. “Once we were playing well and getting into the flow of the game on both ends of the floor, we kept rolling and that definitely helped us out.”

The loss dropped the Jacks to 7-13, 2-7, with only one win away from Frost Arena. The Jacks are now 1-9 on the road, and the game marked the Jackrabbits’ fourth loss on the road that was over 20 points. The road woes could be attributed to a very young team, starting two freshman and two sophomores, but head coach Scott Nagy is tired of that excuse.

“I’m sick of losing. I can continue to say, ‘Oh, we’re young, we’re young, we’re young,’ but I’m just tired of saying that,” Nagy said. “I’d like to see more. I just wish we were tough, but we’re just not.”

The Bison exploited the Jacks’ Achilles’ heel-turnovers. The Jacks, who are last in the Summit League in turnover margin, turned the ball over 18 times, compared to just seven from the Bison, with the Bison scoring 28 points off of turnovers.

“Tonight we put on the ball pressure, and we played great team defense,” Woodside said. “We caused turnovers and that’s what we wanted to do tonight, and we did a great job all around.”

Woodside, the leading scorer in the Summit League, paced the Bison with 25 points, while junior guard Brett Winkelman added 16. Williams led the Jacks with 17 points, with Beran adding 12.

The Jacks hope to have a better performance when they go on the road to face IPFW Jan.31, followed by a game against Oakland (Mich.) Feb.2. The tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Jan. 31 and 5 p.m. on Feb. 2. The Jacks beat IPFW 73-60 and lost to Oakland 73-72 earlier in the season.

#1.882897:1248739068.jpg:ndsu_basketball2.jpg:Bison guard Freddy Coleman dunks two of his seven points over SDSU guard Clint Sargent during the game on Jan. 26.:Travis Wigdahl/The Spectrum