The North Dakota State men’s basketball team beat Oral Roberts 92-72 in the semifinals of the Summit League tournament. This will be NDSU’s fourth straight appearance in the championship game and they have now appeared in eight of the last ten conference title games.

The Bison were in control of the game from the start, making their first nine shots. With just over 10 minutes left in the first half, NDSU was up 33-14.

Oral Roberts was able to chip away at the Bison lead as NDSU went into halftime with a nine-point lead.

One area where NDSU wanted to attack Oral Roberts was in transition. Even though they were only credited with eight fastbreak points, playing with a faster tempo was a goal coming into the game.

Postgame, Sam Griesel spoke about how the Bison wanted to get out and get easy buckets in transition, “A big thing that we’ve been harping on is pushing the ball with the pass and when we have 6-11, 6-10 that can run like that, obviously that helps, big targets for us guards to find.”

Offensively, the Bison were cooking, as they scored a season-high 92 points while shooting over 60% from the field and 42% from three-point range.

On the defensive side of the ball, NDSU held ORU to just 36% shooting from the floor and 36% from three. The 72 points were also the lowest amount the Golden Eagles have scored since their matchup against the Bison on Feb. 17.

In his postgame press conference, head coach David Richman spoke about how keeping ORU star Max Abmas in check was a focal point to their defensive gameplan, “He got 28 tonight but we forced him to take 23 shots,” Richman said. “I’ve had those thirties before with different guys and gameplans but Max can singlehandedly beat you and so we’ve had a pretty precise gameplan and have been fortunate that it’s worked a couple times.”

Griesel led the way for the Herd, tying his career-high with 26 points while dishing out eight assists and grabbing nine rebounds. Grant Nelson and Rocky Kreuser joined him in double figures as Nelson scored 20 points while collecting eight rebounds and Kreuser scored 16 points with five rebounds.

Up next, the Bison will play first-seeded South Dakota State at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night with a bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.