Complete NDSU Basketball Game Notes (PDF)ESPN3 Video |
Free Audio |
Live Stats Thursday's Game: The North Dakota State men's basketball team (20-8, 12-3 Summit League) will play its final regular season game at Oral Roberts (15-13, 8-6 Summit) on Thursday, Feb. 26. The Bison are tied for first place in the league standings with South Dakota State. Both schools have one game remaining.
Feb. 26 at Oral Roberts 7 p.m.
Viewing Options: Thursday's game at Oral Roberts will be available on ESPN3 and the ESPN Full Court package.
Radio: Jack Michaels will call the game on KFGO-AM 790 of Fargo. Free audio streaming will be available at GoBison.com/allaccess.
What's at Stake: A win would give North Dakota State at least a share of The Summit League's regular season title. The Bison are tied with South Dakota State at 12-3 in the league with one game remaining. SDSU plays its final game at South Dakota on Saturday at 4 p.m.
About Oral Roberts: The Golden Eagles carry a record of 15-13 overall and 8-6 in The Summit League into the final week of league play. ORU has lost three of its last five games.
ORU rejoined The Summit League prior to this season after spending two years in the Southland Conference. The Golden Eagles were picked to finish third in the league, two spots ahead of NDSU.
The Golden Eagles have been led by a pair of junior guards in Obi Emegano and Korey Billbury this season. Emegano is averaging 17.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while Billbury is posting 14.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest.
As a team, ORU ranks fifth in the country in free throws made and 15th in free throws attempted.
The Series with Oral Roberts: Thursday will be the 16th meeting between North Dakota State and Oral Roberts dating back to 1967-68. ORU leads the series 9-6 and had won four in a row before the Bison won 72-66 in Fargo on Jan. 2 this season.
Last Meeting: NDSU senior
Lawrence Alexander scored a career-high 31 points to propel the Bison to a 72-66 victory over Oral Roberts in the Summit League opener for both teams on Jan. 2. Alexander scored 24 points in the final 14 minutes of the game, going 7-of-8 from the field, 5-of-6 from three-point range, and 5-of-5 from the free throw line in that time frame. As a team, the Bison made 19-of-20 attempts at the charity stripe.
Title Talk: NDSU is in search of its third Summit League regular season title after earning the league crown outright in the 2008-09 and 2013-14 seasons.
The Bison have not won back-to-back regular season conference titles since the 1940-41 and 1941-42 seasons under head coach Bob Lowe in the North Central Conference.
Versus Oral Roberts: Lawrence Alexander is the only player on NDSU's roster who had played against Oral Roberts prior to this season. He is averaging 21.0 points and 5.7 assists in three career games vs. the Golden Eagles. Alexander posted 16 points and seven assists in NDSU's last visit to the Mabee Center on Jan. 5, 2012.
Upcoming: The Bison have already clinched a top-two seed for the Summit League Tournament to be held March 7-10 in Sioux Falls, S.D., at the Denny Sanford Premier Center. The Bison will play in the quarterfinals on March 7.
Three-Point Improvement: The Bison have seen a dramatic improvement in their three-point shooting over the last two months. On Dec. 24, NDSU was shooting 35 percent from beyond the arc and ranked 137th in the nation. On Feb. 24, NDSU is shooting 39.5 percent and ranked 24th in the country.
Heat Check: Over the last four games, redshirt freshman
A.J. Jacobson is averaging 16.3 points and shooting 13-for-22 (59 percent) from three-point range.
Three-Year Plan: The Bison have posted three straight 20-win seasons for just the second time in school history. NDSU won 20-plus games for four straight seasons from 1993-97. NDSU's 70 wins over the last three seasons are the most in school history in a three-year span.
Starts Record: With a start on Thursday,
Lawrence Alexander would tie
Marshall Bjorklund (2010-14) for the NDSU record with 127 career games started.
Mike Felt (2009-14) holds the NDSU career record for games played at 132.
Freshman Numbers: A.J. Jacobson is the league's top scoring freshman, both overall and in league play. He ranks among the top five in the league in three-point field goal percentage at 46.6 percent, and stands at No. 2 in free throw percentage (90.5 percent) in league play. Jacobson has made multiple three-pointers in 11 of 15 league games.
Off the Bench: Sophomore forward
Dexter Werner has nine games of 7+ rebounds this season. He has scored in double figures 12 times.
Up to Sixth: With 27 points in the win over Fort Wayne on Feb. 21,
Lawrence Alexander moved from eighth to sixth on the NDSU all-time scoring list, passing
Taylor Braun (2010-14) and Steve Saladino (1972-76) with 1,673 career points.
Alexander needs 22 points to pass Jeff Askew (1979-83) for fifth on the scoring list.
Lawrence Alexander's National Rankings (as of Feb. 24) 2nd in minutes per game (38.6)
6th in 3-pointers made (91)
7th in 3-point field goal percentage (44.8%)
9th in 3-pointers made per game (3.25)
16th in total points (542)
23rd in points per game (19.4)
Home Court: The Bison have won 25 straight home games, which is the 7th-longest active home winning streak in the nation. NDSU is 38-2 at home since the start of the 2012-13 season, with the only two losses being to Southern Miss (70-69) on Nov. 18, 2013, and Western Illinois (49-36) on Feb. 14, 2013.
Only One: Lawrence Alexander is the only player in NDSU history with at least 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists in his career.
Threes Record: With one three-pointer on Feb. 19 against IUPUI,
Lawrence Alexander set the NDSU single-season record for treys. Alexander broke the mark held by Ross Manson, who made 85 three-pointers in the 1993-94 season.
