Box Score

VALLEY CITY, ND – The MSU Comets ventured down to Valley City, ND to start a weekend conference battle on the road, taking on the Valley City State Vikings to start their trip. With a 2-0 start in the NSAA, the Comets were looking to keep their streak going against their longtime rival to the south. 

In first half action, it was a close back-and-forth battle, with the Comets pulling ahead early and  the Vikings battling back each time MSU made a surge. After that point, the Comets went on a solid run, lead largely by the production of Daniel Lindgren. The team went on a 19-7 run to take a 12-point lead until the Vikings slowly crept up once again.

The home team went on a run of their own, getting a quick 14 points with the halftime score reading 33-31 in favor of the Comets. Stat-wise, things were close on a lot of ends between the two.  The Comets shot 46.9% from the field, the Vikings shot 48.1%.  Total rebounds were about even, the Comets with 16 and Vikings with 15. Turnovers were within one as well, 7 to 8 with the Vikings having one more. Daniel Lindgren and Eric Staebler were leading the charge, combining for 19 of the Comets first-half points.

Gorg Alhag sparked the Comets right away in the start of the second half, scoring the first seven points for the team and helping them climb to a 9-point lead, causing VCSU to call a time out after the first four minutes of action.  The game continued to go up and down a bit, with MSU fending off everything VCSU threw their way. Solid defense and rebounding were keys in keeping the lead for the Comets and converting their defensive stops into points on the board. Alhag helped fuel another solid run to help climb the lead as high as 13 in the final minutes. In the end, the Comets held their lead for the entire game with the 74-65 win. The win is now the sixth in a row for Coach Darren Tighe and his crew in regular season games. 

Coach Tighe thought his team did very well when faced with some adversity for some stretches in the game. "We didn't make one mistake become two and stayed in the moment. It was another well-balanced, hard fought team victory against a very tough Valley City State team."

Leading all scorers was Gorg Alhag with 21, who is coming off a great week after being named NSAA Player of the Week. Daniel Lindgren had a steady 17, followed by Eric Staebler with twelve, who nearly ended with a double-double on the night with a team leading nine rebounds. Overall, the deep bench of the Comets was another key factor as eleven players on the team scored in the game. The Comets nearly shot 50% from the field while keeping the Vikings just under 41%. They caused 17 Viking turnovers compared to 12 of their own. 

Next action for the Comets will be westward as they travel to Dickinson, ND to take on Dickinson State at 5pm MT, 6pm CT on Saturday, Dec 9th.