vs. Oral Roberts (2/13)

A must-win game for the Bison to stay in contention for a top-four seed against a struggling Oral Roberts team in the bottom two of the Summit League. The first half was quite ugly for the Bison as they went to the locker room down 39-43. Isaac McBride was ORU’s deadliest shooter with ten points. Jacari White paved the way with 12 points for the Bison, but they needed much more to win in the second half. Every time the Bison finally crawled back within one or two points, ORU would respond. That was until the ten-minute mark of the second half when Tajavis Miller hit a three-pointer to give NDSU a 60-59 lead. Each team would score 16 points in the next six minutes to make it a 77-76 NDSU lead with 4:30 left. 

ORU would score five points to go up 81-77 with 2:03 left, and both teams would go cold for a bit over a minute until Jacari White drove in for a layup to cut it to a two-point game. ORU had one more chance to get the lead to a two-score game, but they missed, Jackson Moni got the rebound, went down into the paint, and scored with three seconds left, which would eventually push this game to overtime with a score of 81 all. Overtime was all about the free throws. The Bison got to the line six times, which was enough to push them over ORU, resulting in a 94-88 victory on national television. The Bison advanced to 7-5 in conference play, putting them in fifth place in the league heading into a showdown with last-place Denver on Saturday at the SHAC. 

vs. Denver (2/15)

The story of the game for the Bison was slow starts. A really slow start in the first half as the Bison fell behind 9-0 in the first four minutes. The Bison would crawl back into it after Jacari White and Jackson Moni each got a pair of three-pointers and carried a 38-32 lead going into halftime. The second half was much like the first half, as the Bison would get just two points in the first five minutes, and it would be a tight game all the way to the end. It was a back-and-forth game till the end, and with under a minute left, Jackson Moni would hit two free throws to give the Bison a two-point lead. 

Denver had one last shot to send to OT, and they did it with a dunk. Jackson Moni had a last-second three-pointer for the win, but he missed, and it would head to overtime. Tajavis Miller was the story of overtime as he hit two huge jump shots in a row and would also have a big rebound. The Bison would win 89-84 after Noah Feddersen hit a free throw for the dagger, and the Bison would win their second straight overtime game. This 2024-2025 Bison basketball team also broke the single-season record for three-pointers made as a team. The Bison have three huge games coming up as they head to Brookings to face their rival SDSU, and they will head up to Grand Forks on Saturday to take on UND. 

Their final game at the SHAC will be on the 26th against USD for Senior Day.