VALLEY CITY, N.D. (vcsuvikings.com) – The Valley City State men’s basketball team went on a 20-4 run midway through the second half Tuesday, taking control of a close game as they earned their 13th victory of the season.
Trailing 51-50 with about 10 minutes to play, the Vikings outscored Yellowstone Christian College 32-11 down the stretch en route to an 82-62 non-conference win.
Valley City State is now 13-4 overall this season. The Vikings resume conference play this weekend with home games against Presentation College (Friday) and Mayville State (Saturday).
Four different Vikings scored in double figures Tuesday, led by 18 points from Chris Thompson and 15 from Joshua Kelly. Thompson scored 13 of his points in the second half – including 11 points in the final 10 minutes.
“We finally made an adjustment in regards to taking it to the basket hard,” VCSU head coach Ryan Montgomery said of their late offensive outburst. “We made that adjustment and Chris Thompson was big for that. We started going to him for isolation play, and he really performed and did his job.”
Eddie Oyet added 13 points off the bench for VCSU, and Connor Entzi finished with 12 points.
The Vikings led by as many as seven points early in the second half before Yellowstone steadily chipped away. The Centurions – who defeated Dickinson State on Monday night – took their first lead of the second half at 51-50 on Devin Jones’s 3-pointer with 10:02 remaining. From there, it was all Vikings.
Oyet made a pair of free throws to put VCSU back on top at 52-51. Hunter Sand then followed with five straight points to make it 57-51, and Thompson and Oyet added baskets as part of a quick 12-0 run to put the Vikings in command.
Valley City State shot 47 percent overall (30-64) for the game and 59 percent in the second half. The Vikings shot 30 percent on 3’s (9-30) and 77 percent on free throws (13-17). Yellowstone shot 41 percent overall (23-56), 36 percent on 3’s (8-22) and 50 percent on free throws (8-16).
VCSU held a 37-31 rebounding edge and forced 14 turnovers while committing 11. The Vikings scored 18 points off turnovers and held a 43-26 advantage in paint points.
Up Next: Conference Play Resumes
Valley City State’s men and women start the second half of conference play this weekend with a pair of home doubleheaders. The Vikings host Presentation College on Friday for a 5:30/7:30 p.m. doubleheader. On Saturday, VCSU hosts Mayville State at 3 and 5 p.m. The Viking men are 4-3 in conference play and sit one game back of conference leaders Mayville State and Bellevue University.
“It’s going to be tough weekend,” said Montgomery. “We want everybody to focus first on Presentation College. Everybody focus on Friday night first, and then we can go worry about Saturday’s game against Mayville.”