Herd wins tight won against the mustangs

The NDSU men’s basketball team defeated Cal Poly 74-67 on Monday. The Bison’s record improved to 2-1 with the win and they have won their last two games after dropping the season opener to Kansas State.

Vinnie Shahid led the way for the Herd with 21 points, raising his points per game average to 11.7 on the season. Cameron Hunter added a big boost in the second half scoring 13 points. Tyson Ward played an excellent all-around game as he put up 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Free throws were a huge story in the game as NDSU hit 25 of a whopping 31 free throw attempts, putting their free throw percentage at 80.6 percent for the game. Meanwhile Cal Poly only went 6-11 at the line, putting their free throw percentage at 54.5 percent. The Bison also won the rebounding battle, outrebounding the Mustangs 32-26.

The Mustangs were scorching the nets from three as they hit 50 percent of their three-point attempts while the Bison struggled from deep, only hitting 25 percent of their three-point attempts.

The Bison defense struggled as they allowed the Mustangs to shoot 52 percent from the field for the game. Cal Poly ended the first half on a 12-0 run and took the lead into halftime at 33-30.

The Herd took their first lead of the second half on a pair of free throws by Ward to make it 47-46 with 11 minutes remaining. The game was tied at 51 when the Bison scored seven straight points on a jumper by Tyree Eady, a free throw by Ward, a layup by Shahid and a bucket by Ward. This pushed the Bison lead to 58-51 with six minutes left to play and the Bison held on the rest of the way.

Up next for the Bison, they will travel to Corpus Christi this weekend for the Islander invitational. NDSU will take on UT Rio Grande Valley, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Stony Brook. This will be a good early-season test for the Bison as both Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Stony Brook have challenged some good basketball teams early on despite coming away with a loss.