Bison hand Jacks second straight overtime loss

Friday, January 23

Frost Arena

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

North Dakota State

1/23/2009 1:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State led by five points with just over minute left in regulation, but the senior laden North Dakota State squad found a way to force overtime, where the Bison outscored the Jackrabbits 16-6 to earn an 87-77 Summit League win on Friday in front of a season-high 3,629 fans at Frost Arena.

The Jacks second straight overtime and fifth straight loss to the rival Bison drops them to 8-13 on the season and 3-6 in The Summit League. NDSU improves to 16-5 overall and leads the league with an 8-1 record.

Garrett Callahan led the Jacks with 22 points, Anthony Cordova added a career-high 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting (83 percent), but the Bison got a 30 points from The Summit League's leading scorer and preseason Player of the Year Ben Woodside and 29 from Brett Winkelman. Woodside and Winkelman teamed-up to score all but three of the Bison's 34 points in the second half. Josh Vaughan scored the other three, but did not score until 1:44 remained in regulation.

Clint Sargent scored 12 for SDSU and Michael Tveidt 11 for NDSU to round out the game's double-digit scorers.

The game started with one tie and four quick lead changes before the Bison finally broke out and took the lead, which grew to as many as nine points at 28-19 with 6:28 left in the half.

The Jacks responded though, and bounced back with a 15-5 run that ended with 2:54 on the clock and SDSU up 34-33.

NDSU scored the final four points of the half to take a 37-34 lead into the lockerroom at halftime, and then quickly pushed the lead back up to seven points at 43-36 with just under a minute and a half gone in the second half.

SDSU answered with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 45, and even though the Bison held the Jacks without a field goal for six minutes and 37 seconds in the half, SDSU never got down by more than five points, thanks to five Griffan Callahan free throws.

Cordova broke the drought with a layup that got the Jacks back within one at 50-49 with just over ten minutes remaining in the half and a Garrett Callahan layup put the Jacks on top for the first time in the second half at 59-58 three minutes later.

After three more of the game's ten lead changes and two more of the game's five ties, the Jacks emerged with the lead and held onto it until a pair of Winkelman free throws tied the game at 71 with ten seconds remaining.

The Jacks brought the ball down for the final shot, but a Garrett Callahan three pointer with four seconds left missed its mark, as did a half court prayer by Winkelman at the buzzer.

Sargent scored the first point of the overtime on a free throw, but NDSU followed with an 11-0 run to secure the Bison win.

The Jackrabbits return to action on Thursday, when they host IPFW in Frost Arena at 7 p.m.