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It’s onto the postseason for the Herd

This previous weekend, the men and women’s basketball team capped off their regular season. With the regular season wrapped up the next step will be the Summit League tournament where each team is ranked third.

No rest will be given before the tournament though. It will already be happening this upcoming weekend. Let’s take a look back at this past weekend’s games and look ahead at what this tournament is going to bring.

Game Recap

Both teams played away against the University of South Dakota Coyotes. The USD teams have both been at or near the top of the Summit League for most of the season. The USD men and women were 10-3 and 10-2 going into their two games against NDSU.

The Bison struggled against the dominant Coyotes. The women’s team lost both of their games, and the men lost their first. The men’s team would come back to win in their second game with a career night from Sam Griesel.

Between the two women’s games, the first was the real heartbreaker. The game was tied 81-81 when a foul was called on the Bison with less than a second left. USD’s Hannah Sjerven would put the game away with a successful free throw.

Bison Heaven Hamling owned the night scoring 30 points. She made 8 free throws throughout the game plus 8 rebounds. Ryan Cobbins also collected 8 rebounds.

As a team, the Bison were 8-9 in free throw leading to a top-notch 89% free throw percentage. Reneya Hopkins lead the team in the category, going 4-4.

The second night the women’s team lost 81-61. Hemling leads the team again with 19 points and 5 threes. The Coyotes defense would be too much for the Bison to handle.

As for the men’s team, the first game ended in an 80-71 loss. It was a solid team effort from the Bison with nine different players scoring, and four scoring more than 10 points. Rockey Kreuser stood out with his 17 points and 13 rebounds.

One of the biggest downsides to NDSU’s game was threes. As a team, they only made 10 of an attempted 30 throughout the game.

The one NDSU win over the weekend was a strong one. The Bison won 89-77. That’s a 12 point lead. Griesel was the man of the night. He scored 26 points including 4 threes along with five rebounds and a block. He led the team in each of those categories.

The pressure wasn’t getting to Jarius Cook either. Cook went 8-8 in free throws. As a team, the Bison were successful on 20-25 free throws.

Tournament Preview

Despite the losses, both Bison teams still sit in third in the Summit League Standings only behind SDSU and USD. The tournament will begin this Saturday.

In the first round, the women’s team will take on Denver. In the regular season, NDSU was 1-1 against Denver. The loss was close at 60-62. In the win, the Bison dominated 74-56. If they win they will play either USD or Oral Roberts.

The men’s team will take on Kansas City. The men’s team went 1-1 in the regular season against Kansas City. The win was 71-67. The loss was a low scoring 47-49. If NDSU wins they will take on Western Illinois or USD.

Both teams won’t play until day two of the tournament, Sunday, March 7th. The women will play at 2:45 p.m., and the men at 8:45 p.m.

Of course, the two big players in each tournament will be USD and SDSU. SDSU was the team the Bison played just before USD. With the games fresh in their minds, the Bison could have a game-planning advantage if they have to face one of these two opponents.