Box Score The Comets Men's Basketball team hosted the Valley City State Vikings to kick off the conference season. In a close battle throughout, the Vikings managed to gut out a 70-65 victory.

Mayville State opened strong, hitting some early threes to jump out to a 17-10 lead. The Vikings were able to chop away at the lead, eventually and eventually knotted the score at 27 with two minutes left. A late Viking triple gave Valley the lead at halftime 30-27. Both teams played tough defense, limiting the other to under 40% shooting for the half. The Vikings took the initiative in the second half and expanded their lead to 10 points, but the Comets roared right back to tie the game at 39. The Vikings inched out to a small lead after that, as neither team could land the knockout blow. The Comets needed to start fouling to get the ball back, and the Vikings were up to the task as they sank their last seven tree throw attempts, and closed out the victory 70-65. Free throw shooting was the key to the game, as Valley City State connected on 19/21 attempts.

Ben Maranan led the Comets with 14 points and Creighton Pfau added 13 points and 4 steals. For the Vikings, Jayden Ferguson finished with 20 points to lead all scorers, Austin Dunbar collected 19 points and 8 rebounds, Rashad Satahoo scored 17 and Austin Quist reached double figures with 10.

The Comets record stands at 6-2, 0-1 in the NSAA. Mayville State hosts Dickinson State Saturday, tipoff is at 5pm.