Box Score BOX SCORE

FARGO, ND – The North Dakota State Bison men's basketball team showed why they were in the NCAA Tournament last season, as they rebounded from a slow start to defeat the Mayville State University Comets 93-53 in non-conference action at the Scheels Center in Fargo. Thursday night's loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Comets, but their record still sits at 4-1 after the exhibition loss.
 
"I think we got an opportunity to learn a lot about ourselves and what we need to improve on," Comets Head Coach Darren Tighe said. "They are a very good basketball team."
 
On the opposing side, NDSU head coach Dave Richman had praise for the Comets.
 
"I want to give Darren and his crew a lot of credit," Richman said. "I thought they came in here with great energy and it's a great group, you can see their passion for each other."
 
The Comets jumped out to the early 2-0 lead, just 39 seconds on, on Max Cooper's putback in the paint. Cooper picked up a rebound by Latrelle Franklin off of Rene Melendez's missed three-pointer, which would have given the Comets the lead less than 30 seconds in.
 
"I liked some of the things we were able to do," Tighe said.
 
But after that, it was all North Dakota State.
 
The Bison held the Comets scoreless for just over six minutes, before Simon Ramirez nailed a three from the corner, cutting the NDSU lead to 13-5. With just under eight-and-a-half minutes gone, Franklin cut the Bison lead to three, which was answered just 20 seconds later by Tyler Witz, who came up big for NDSU. He extended the lead to eight halfway through the first half.
 
Then, the Comets poured on a little defensive pressure, causing the Bison to struggle to find the basket. Eventually, Iker Cruz and Melendez were able to put up shots, pulling Mayville State to within one point with just 7:20 to go in the half.
 
North Dakota State took a 44-32 lead into the halftime break.
 
Vinnie Shahid, likely one of the best players in the Summit League, took over in the second half. The first three Bison points were by Shahid, including a huge slam dunk, putting the Bison ahead by 14, 46-32.
 
"Vinnie has the ability to get to spots on the floor," Richman said.
 
In the second half, the Comets went more than two minutes without a bucket, until Dominic Schuster nailed a three from the corner, cutting it to 79-49 in favor of the Bison.
 
Ramirez led the Comets with 15 points, followed by Schuster with eight. Ramirez was 3-of-6 from behind the three-point line, while Schuster was a perfect 2-for-2 from the three-point line.
 
Tyson Ward led the Bison with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
 
One statistic on the Bison side—Mayville State held the Bison to 1-of-10 shooting from the three-point line in the first half, only to allow them to go 7-of-13 in the second half.

"Give them credit," Richman said. "But a lot of it is us right now."