Mayville, ND - The Comets Men's Basketball team finished a very busy weekend at Mayville State with a contest against the Providence Pilots. Comet Athletics had seven home events starting Friday and wrapped up the last game today with men's basketball.

A potent offense headed by Thomas Gieske's perfect night rolled to a 112-56 victory and a perfect Sunday afternoon ending. 

Head coach Brandon McGruder said, "I think we just came in with the right mindset. I didn't make any new adjustments, we came into shoot around with more focus and it translated into our game."

While Saturday's game was back in forth in the early stages, the Comets immediately took the momentum by scoring 18 of the first 20 points of the game. Active cutting and pinpoint passing resulted in a number of easy layups.

Two free throws by Stevan Garza bumped the lead to 31-5 halfway through the first half. The Pilots started hitting some baskets to not fall further behind, but some late fast break opportunities gave the Comets a 57-26 lead at halftime.

McGruder also commented that, "Our communication was a bit better but we need to be more consistent. Talking is a skill set now days and something that needs to be practiced in everything we do."

Gieske led all scorers with 14, followed by Jamison Kramer with 8. A number of those baskets resulted from JC Canahuate passes, as he handed out 8 assists in the first half.

The Comets continued to push the pace in the second half. Providence was able to keep pace for the first seven minutes, but then Mayville State ripped off a 28-2 run over the next eight minutes to lead 99-42.

John Dixon's jumper took the Comets over the century mark for the second time in as many days. Mayville State continued to pile up the points and doubled up the Pilots 112-56.

Going into next week McGruder said, "We need to improve our spacing offensively and and our rotation's defensively. We're still a bit late in our rotations and we were a bit congested offensively. Both teams are really good and we'll have to play extremely well if we want to have a chance."

The Comets shot 61% as a team for the game, as Gieske went 12 for 12 from the field and nailed both free throws for a 27 point night, he also had 9 rebounds. 

"That's Tom. He's so efficient, a lot of what he does goes unnoticed. He's a guy who creates scoring opportunities for himself by getting second chance points and attacking mismatches. For being NSAA POY, I only ran a handful of plays for him. He just goes and gets it." McGruder commented on Gieske's perfect night.

Nick Michaelson and Jesse Bergh also reached double figures with 16 and 10 respectively. 13 Comets scored on the evening and 11 had at least 5 points.

Canahuate finished the night with nine assists, Bergh blocked two shots and BJ Woods tallied three steals.

"I think Josh Dixon and Nick Michaelson played really well. Nick ran the floor extremely hard and got rewarded and JD was patient in the post and made great moves. Both have made huge strides in their development and expect them to continue to improve," added McGruder.

The win boosts the Comets record to 2-0 on the season. Mayville State travels to Nebraska next weekend to battle two GPAC teams, with Concordia University up first on Friday, November 8th, tip off is 8:00pm.

For full schedule and results visit: https://msucomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule