BELLEVUE, NEB. (VCSUVikings.com) – A late-season run and some memorable careers came to an end Thursday night for the Valley City State University men’s basketball team.
VCSU’s six-game winning streak skidded to a halt Thursday as the Viking season ended with a 64-60 loss to top seed Bellevue University in the North Star Athletic Association quarterfinal round.
Valley City State, which won its last five NSAA games to qualify for the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed, gave the regular season champion a run but Bellevue was just too solid on their home floor. VCSU held a 32-31 halftime lead but Bellevue held off the Vikings in the second half for the four-point victory.
The Vikings end the season with a 14-16 overall record. Bellevue – ranked No. 22 in the NAIA – advances to the NSAA semifinals on Sunday with a 21-10 record.
Bellevue opened the second half with a 9-3 run to take a 40-35 lead. Bellevue extended its lead to 47-40 before the Vikings scored the next six points to pull within one at 47-46 with 8 minutes remaining. VCSU continued to grind away and tied the game at 49-49 after Alex Quist drew a charge and Jayden Ferguson sank a jumper with 6:10 remaining. Bellevue then ripped off an 8-1 run to tie their largest lead of the game at 57-50 with 3:42 left.
The Vikings chipped away and cut the deficit to two points three different times in the final minute, but Bellevue made enough plays down the stretch and Jalen Hall hit two free throws with 3.4 seconds remaining to ice the Bruin victory.
It marked the final collegiate game for six VCSU seniors: Justyn Galloway, Chase Carpenter, Rashad Satahoo, Jayden Ferguson, Alex Quist and Austin Dunbar. All but Dunbar were members of the 2015-16 squad that was just the second team in program history to win a national tournament game. Jayden Ferguson and Rashad Satahoo both end their careers high on the all-time scoring list. Ferguson ranks 2nd in school history with 2,128 career points, and Satahoo ranks 12th with 1,220 career points.
Austin Dunbar had a monster first half for the Vikings, pouring in 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting to help VCSU to a 32-31 lead at the break. The entertaining first half had eight lead changes, including two in the final 12 seconds. Jalen Hall nailed a 3-pointer for Bellevue to put the Bruins up 31-29 with 12 ticks remaining, but Satahoo nailed a 3 on the other end with three seconds left to give VCSU it’s 32-31 edge.
Dunbar finished with a game-high 29 points and added eight rebounds to lead VCSU’s offense. Justyn Galloway pulled in 17 rebounds and had 12 points for a monster double-double. Jayden Ferguson added 11 points for the Vikings.
The Bruins were led by 20 points from Jalen Hall.
VCSU shot 41 percent for the game (22-54), but shot just 33 percent (9-27) in the second half. The Vikings went just 1-for-7 from 3-point range and shot 68 percent on free throws (15-22).
Bellevue made just 34 percent of its shots in the game (22-65). The Bruins were 26 percent from deep (6-23) and 64 percent at the line (14-22). The Vikings were hampered by 12 turnovers, compared to just six for Bellevue. VCSU committed eight turnovers in the first half, but cleaned it up at halftime and turned it over just four times after the break.