Men finish off road trip with Centenary
Written by Rob Detjen Friday, 29 January 2010 08:00
The Bison men’s basketball team will finish up their three game road trip this Saturday in Shreveport, La., against Summit League adversary Centenary.
NDSU won the previous matchup this season on New Year’s Eve with a dominating 82-70 win thanks largely to a big game by junior Michael Tveidt.
Tveidt scored a career-high 29 points, 10 of which came during an 18-0 Bison run in the second half. Three other Bison finished the game in double digits in points.
The 7-13 Centenary team is led by their three guards, David Perez, Roman Tubner and Daman Starring. Perez is No. 4 in the Summit league in scoring, and is the team’s leading scorer with just under 17 points per game. Perez loves to shoot the three-pointer – on the season so far, Perez has shot a total of 248 three-pointers, hitting 108 of them.
Scoring shouldn’t be a problem for the Bison. Centenary is last in the Summit League in scoring defense and scoring margin.
Senior guard Josh Vaughn and sophomore forward Eric Carlson have been stepping up big for the Bison these past few games.
Vaughn is coming off a game against UMKC where he had a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Carlson recently had a big game against IPFW where he matched his career-high scoring 23 points.
The Bison should also have a huge day on boards. With no real height on the team, Centenary is last in the Summit league in rebounding defense and second-to-last in offensive rebounding.
The only significant threat Centenary posses is their ability to hit shots from behind the three-point line.
NDSU has forced recent opponents to live or die by the three without being able to answer back. On the season the Bison are at a Summit League worst .387 three-point field goal percentage on defense, while Centenary comes into the game averaging the most three points per game with 8.4.
The Bison will be in the most danger if Centenary gets hot early and starts hitting their open threes. That combined with the home crowd advantage could create a long day for the Bison.
If NDSU is going to hold onto a spot in the Summit league tournament, they will have forgotten about last week’s heart-breaking losses to Oakland and IPFW, and start winning games against opponents that they are far more skilled, including Centenary.
Currently the Bison seeded sixth in the Summit League, while Centenary sits ninth.
Look for another high-scoring battle between the two teams fighting for one of the final eight seeds in the Summit League.
