FARGO, N.D. - Marshall Bjorklund scored a season-high 20 points and Lawrence Alexander scored nine of his 18 in the final five minutes to help North Dakota State beat South Dakota State 65-62 in Summit League men's basketball Saturday, Dec. 29.

Nate Wolters scored 26 points for South Dakota State, which missed a long 3-pointer by Jordan Dykstra at the buzzer to tie.  Tony Fiegen had 14 points and Brayden Carlson finished with 12 for the Jackrabbits (10-5, 1-1).

North Dakota State (11-3, 2-0) trailed by as many as four points inside the 5-minute mark when Alexander got to the rim on back-to-back trips to tie the game at 56 and it was a one-possession game the rest of the way.

NDSU won its sixth straight home game in front of a crowd of 5,064 at the Bison Sports Arena despite a limited student turnout over the winter break.  It was the largest BSA crowd since 2009 when NDSU beat SDSU in the home finale with 5,790 in attendance.

NDSU, which didn't get to the free throw line in the first half, went just 10-for-21 at the stripe and got outrebounded 21-11 after halftime.  But the Bison shot 58 percent and had zero turnovers in the second half to stay in the game.

North Dakota State led by as many as 13 points less than eight minutes into the game.  TrayVonn Wright made back-to-back 3-pointers and Alexander had a layup and 3-pointer to cap a 13-2 run that made it 19-6 at the 12:10 mark.

NDSU led by 11 points after a pair of Mike Felt 3-pointers made it 27-16, but the Jacks went on a seven-point run and closed to within in 29-27 at halftime.

Wright finished with nine points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots and Taylor Braun scored 11 points, all in the second half.  The Bison were 9 of 23 from the 3-point line including a career-high three from Wright and three from Braun.

North Dakota State continues Summit League play Thursday, Jan. 3, at South Dakota and Saturday, Jan. 5, at Kansas City.