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SUUTBIRDS.COM: North Dakota State Blitzes T-Birds
This entry was posted on 1/18/2009 6:44 PM and is filed under Boys Basketball News.
The following is an excerpt from an article at SUUTBIRDS.COM
North Dakota State Blitzes T-Birds
Courtesy: Southern Utah Athletics Release: 01/15/2009
CEDAR CITY, Utah - Jan. 15 - North Dakota State was a thousand miles away from its Fargo, N.D. home Thursday night, but the Bison seemed as comfortable in the Centrum as they might at home in a 76-53 Summit League win over Southern Utah.
Despite John Clifford’s third double-double of the season – he finished with 14 points, a career-high 15 rebounds and three blocks – the Thunderbirds couldn’t answer NDSU, which grabbed the early lead, then made runs every time SUU threatened to take an advantage.
The Bison shot the ball well, rebounded it well and did a pretty good job moving around. They hit 32-of-57 shots (56.1 percent), their third-best night of the season and their best on the road while limiting the Thunderbirds to 17-of-54 (.315) shooting, their worst night of the year. NDSU also out-rebounded SUU 38-to-29 and matched the Thunderbirds’ assist total of 11.
“We ran into a really good team tonight,”’ SUU Coach Roger Reid said. “We knew, coming into the game, that this was going to be a test for us, but unfortunately we weren’t up to it tonight. I was disappointed with the way we played, but its still early in the [conference] season, we have a lot of games to play and we’ll just get right back at it in practice tomorrow and get ready for our next game.”
NDSU never trailed, scoring the first basket then going on a 10-2 run to grab a 12-4 advantage with 13:48 to play in the first half. The closest the Thunderbirds would get the rest of the way was within six as the Bison used their size advantage and some deadly shooting to keep SUU at bay.
Brett Winkleman and Mike Nelson did most of the Damage inside for NDSU, as each finished with 17 points and Winkleman had 10 rebounds, while pre-season Summit League player of the year Ben Woodside led all scorers with 24 points, doing his damage both inside and from long range, hitting 10-of-16 shots overall and all four of his 3-point attempts. Woodside also dished out a game-high six assists and had two steals.
In addition to Clifford’s effort, Davis Baker finished with 11 points but he had just one rebound and no Thunderbird other then Clifford had more than two. Dave Marek had two rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Byron Byrd came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-pointers – his first points as a T-Bird, and finished with six points.
SUU, which hosts South Dakota State on Saturday, dipped to 3-3 in league play (5-12 overall) but remained tied for third place in the Summit League with the loss, however, as Western Illinois (3-3, 6-11) lost at Centenary. North Dakota State (6-1, 11-5) maintained its half-game lead over Oral Roberts (5-1, 7-11), a winner at home over IUPUI Thursday night.
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