The women and men’s teams are playing well at the right time

Women’s basketball

The Bison women’s basketball team continue to play well as they took down the struggling Omaha Mavericks last Thursday. The 74-65 win was the Herd’s 3rd win in its last four tries.

Four Bison went over double digits with Sofija Zivaljevic tying for the team lead with 15 points and Ryan Dobbins and Rylee Nudell notching 12 points apiece. Michelle Gaislerova provided a big boost for the Herd coming off the bench with 15 points.

The game was a back and forth battle from opening tip to final whistle. Neither team could seem to string together any sort of scoring run until the fourth quarter when a 9-2 run gave the Herd the boost they needed.

The 3rd quarter was especially tough for both squads. The Mavs and the Bison combined for just 18 total points in the third frame. Then in the fourth quarter, the two squads seemed to find themselves offensively with the Herd outscoring Omaha 29-21.

As it does in most games, the free-throw line was a key factor. The Bison were an outstanding 30-33 from the line on the night. Omaha was a respectable 11-15 from the line, but the Bison just could not seem to miss from the charity stripe and it propelled them to a victory.

Gaislerova played a key roll in securing the win for the Herd in the final minute. The junior who was back visiting her home state of Nebraska hit six clutch free throws as time winded down to crush any hopes of a Maverick’s comeback.

With just two games separating the four teams in the Summit League, the Bison are playing good basketball at the right time. The Herd has five games left in conference play so it is right in front of them to move up in the standings.

Men’s basketball

The men’s basketball team picked up their 5th straight win and have now won seven of their last eight after beating Oral Roberts 83-76 on Saturday.

Leading the charge for the Bison was senior point guard Vinnie Shahid. Shahid dropped a career-best 31 points nailing all six of his attempted three’s and hitting all nine of his free throws. This was Shahid’s seventh time in the last nine games going over 20 points.

After going down early, NDSU went on a staggering 22-1 run to build an 11 point lead in the first half.

The Bison were never quite able to put the Golden Eagles away. The Herd kept Oral Roberts at arm’s length but led by Deondre Burns the Eagles forced the Bison to keep their foot on the pedal.

On the night, the Herd shot an impressive 53 percent while only missing four free throws.

Sophomore Sam Griesel had a nice night for the Bison. Griesel scored a season-best 13 points to go along with six rebounds. Tyson Ward also stuffed the stat sheet going 12, six and six.

The win helped the Bison remain atop the Summit League standings with the conference tournament starting to peek up over the horizon. The Herd now get a well earned six-day break between games before taking on Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday at the Scheels Center.