The
'Roos head to the Summit League Championships in Sioux Falls, S.D. as
the No. 6 seed, matching the highest seeding for the tournament under
Matt Brown. The 'Roos come in after getting their third league road win
of the year on Saturday at IUPUI. NDSU enters as the No. 3 seed and has
won its last two contests after the return of leading scorer Taylor
Braun. It will be the 15th meeting between the 'Roos and Bison, with
NDSU holding a 10-4 lead in the series. Bison won 63-44 in Kansas City
on Jan. 5. and 71-34 in Fargo on Jan. 31. This will be the first meeting
at a neutral site or at the Summit League Tournament between UMKC and
NDSU.
Kansas
City is returning to the conference tournament after missing last
season. The 'Roos are 5-15 all-time in the tournament, and 0-3 under
Matt Brown. The last time UMKC won a tournament game was in 2007 against
Valparaiso, 84-76. This is UMKC's third trip to Sioux Falls, falling to
Oakland in 2010 (85-70) and IUPUI in 2011 (79-55).
North
Dakota State comes in with a 22-8 overall record and went 12-4 in
conference games to finish third. The Bison have only lost to WIU twice,
SDSU and Oakland.
They are led by junior guard Taylor Braun, who is sixth in the league
in scoring at 14.8 points per game. He also pulls down 4.9 rebounds,
coming back from an injury that held him out 10 games last week. Forward
Marshall Bjorklund scores 11.7 points on a national-best .676 percent
shooting, and a team-best 6.0 boards a game. Lawrence Alexander is
averaging 10.7 points and has a team-best 114 assists.
As a team the Bison lead the conference in scoring margin at +11.9
points per game, and hold opponents to a league best 38 percent
shooting. The Bison also hold opponents to only 55.4 points a game.
For
the season, Estan Tyler (.436) ranks third in the league in three-point
shooting, while Fred Chatmon's 7.5 rebounds per game, ranks fourth in
the Summit League. Chatmon also ranks sixth in blocks (0.9 bpg) while
Tyler is seventh in assists (2.9 apg).
No comments:
Post a Comment