Ward carries ND St. over S. Dakota St. 71-69 in OT

Feb 28, 2020, 05:17 am

FARGO, N.D. -- Tyson Ward scored 24 points and Rocky Kreuser had a key blocked shot as North Dakota State won its 10th consecutive home game, edging South Dakota State 71-69 in overtime on Thursday night in a battle of the top teams in the Summit League.

Ward, who made two free throws with 33 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, made a layup with 20.7 seconds left to put the Bison on top 70-69, the seventh lead change of the extra session. Kreuser then came up with a block in the lane with seven seconds to go and grabbed the rebounded.

Kreuser was fouled and made one free throw but Brandon Key was fouled for the Jackrabbits. He missed his first free throw and with just two seconds left was forced to miss his second on purpose.

Vinnie Shahid had 12 points for North Dakota State (21-8, 12-3) and Kreuser added 11 points.Ward hit 9 of 12 shots and grabbed seven rebounds.

Noah Freidel had 23 points and eight rebounds for the Jackrabbits (22-9, 13-3), whose regular season and eight-game win streak came to an end. Matt Dentlinger added 20 points.

South Dakota State defeated North Dakota State 78-73 on Jan. 22. North Dakota State finishes out the regular season against Nebraska Omaha at home on Saturday in hopes of tying the Jackrabbits for the league title.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com