Disappointment turned to delight as the men’s basketball team rebounded from a tough loss last Thursday night to beat the second place team in the Summit League last Saturday afternoon.

The Pios retain the fourth spot in the Summit League with the win over North Dakota State University, and improve to 11-11, 4-3 in league play.
The weekend did not start out as planned. In the waning moments of the game, a botched in-bounds pass turned into a three for South Dakota State University’s Jordan Dykstra, who led the Jackrabbits in the second half, scoring eight points in the final 17 seconds of the game. Down 71-74, the Pios looked to have tied the game in the last seconds of the game on what looked like a three by sophomore guard Bryant Rucker. To the dismay of DU fans, Rucker’s toe was on the line, and the Pios fell by one at the buzzer.
Junior guard Brett Olson scored nine of his 16 points in the last three minutes of the game despite the loss. Senior forward Chris Udofia also added a game-high 20 points.

So far this year, DU is 3-5 in games decided by five or fewer points. This includes losses at the hands of Mercer University and St. Joseph’s University, along with losses to conference rivals University of South Dakota and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne).
“We can’t fall in the trap of being defined by a one-point loss,” head coach Joe Scott said after Thursday night’s loss. “As a competitor, you can’t do that. Competitors compete. Competitors know that those things happen.”

The Pioneers seemed to respond to Scott’s words, grinding out a 67-63 win over North Dakota State (16-6, 5-2 in the Summit League) on Saturday.
The Pios never trailed the visiting Bison and led by as many as 13 points in the second half, and hung on to win by four, despite not scoring for the last seven minutes, 11 seconds of the game.

The team’s solid fundamental play proved to be enough, going 20 for 22 from the charity stripe. DU also held the advantage in points-off-turnovers, with 21 points off of 15 turnovers, compared to just 12 points for North Dakota State.

The Pioneers were outrebounded in both contests over the weekend, first by South Dakota State by a 30-18 margin, and then by North Dakota State by five rebounds.

“We’ve been playing much better, we’ve been looking like us, we’ve been playing like us,” Scott said, adding “We’ve struggled this year with that element of being an animal and getting the ball, [especially] at those key times, when it’s winning time.”
The University of South Dakota heads to Magness next Saturday at 4 p.m. South Dakota is riding a four-game losing streak, but beat the Pioneers in the teams’ previous meeting this season by a 59-54 margin.