VALLEY CITY, N.D. (vcsuvikings.com) – The Valley City State men’s basketball team opened the second half of Sunday’s game with a 24-3 run that powered the Vikings to a conference-opening victory over Dickinson State, 94-68.
Eddie Oyet‘s performance off the bench paced the Vikings on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball as he put up 23 points and tallied five steals. It is the sixth straight game that Oyet has scored at least 14 points for the Vikings.
Kevin Schramm posted his second double-double of the season with 12 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Jalen Addison poured in 18 points for the Vikings and Tate Hebrink added 12. Addison and Chris Thompson each dished out four assists Sunday.
Valley City State improves to 7-1 overall and 1-0 in the North Star Athletic Association. Dickinson State falls to 3-4 overall and 0-1 in the NSAA.
“Our guys are hungry. As a coaching staff we didn’t know what we would get today but we were just trying to keep motivated through this turbulent time.” said head coach Ryan Montgomery. “This is a resilient group – to do what we did today, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The Vikings had 11 players see playing time Sunday and nine of them scored in the game.
“Each of our guys know, you are just important as the guy who gets 30 minutes a game. With how we play, we need everybody to be locked in. We were like that today and we have been like that the last two months,” added Montgomery.
The Vikings opened up with a quick 9-0 lead over the first five minutes of play Sunday. Valley City State held a 17-point lead with 6:24 left in the half. Over the final five minutes of the first half, Dickinson State took an 18-6 run to get within two points as the Vikings held a 39-37 advantage at halftime.
From there, it was all Valley City State as they opened the second half shooting 80 percent from the field through the first 10 minutes. The Vikings led by as much as 27 points in the second half on a three-pointer from Schramm en route to the 94-68 victory over the Blue Hawks.
Valley City State shot 52 percent from the field (34-65), 50 percent on three-pointers (13-26), and 72 percent on free throws (13-18). Dickinson State shot 41 percent from the field (20-49), 28 percent on three-pointers (7-25), and 78 percent on free throws (21-27).
Valley City State out rebounded the Blue Hawks 37-27, including 10 offensive boards. The Vikings also tallied 12 steals as a team Sunday.
Bryce Knox led Dickinson State with 26 points while John Evans added 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds Sunday. Trey Hladky added seven points and six assists for the Blue Hawks.
UP NEXT: The Vikings will now take a break over the next few weeks and resume play in January. Valley City State is scheduled to host Yellowstone Christian College on Saturday, Jan. 2.