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CITY, N.D (NewsDakota.com) Valley City State University Men’s Basketball team opened the season with back-to-back games on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
The Vikings tipped off the season against Dordt College on Friday night. Leading the way for VCSU was A.J. McDonald, who finished the game with 33 points, helping the Vikings carry a 50-37 lead going into the half. After shooting a mere 18% from the field in the first half Dordt shot nearly 72% in the second. It was that turn around that allowed the Defenders to take the victory as they toped Valley City 100-93 on opening night.
Despite the loss, the Vikings fans came to their feet late in the second half when Aaron Duske hit a free throw giving him his 1000th career point as a Viking.
After the match up with Dordt, VCSU was back to play on Saturday when they hosted #15 Northwestern, who was coming off a win against University of Jamestown the night before. After the tip it looked as though the Vikings would cruse to a victory as they pulled away by as much as 12 points in the early going of the first half, but the Raiders would fight back with help from Zack Leeper who finished the half with 8 points. By the time the period came to an end, The Vikings led had been cut to just one.
In the second half both teams would battle back and forth, but the Raiders would take over the lead with 15 minutes left in paly. As had happened on the day before, the Vikings would not be able to come back and would fall to 0-2 in the early season, after a the 80-72 final.
Leeper was the top scorer for Northwestern finishing with 15 points.
Duske would have his second straight big night leading the Vikings in scoring with 28 points. McDonald finished the night with 15. Off of the bench Austin Rambow tallied 7 points on the night.
The Vikings are back on the court November 7th when they host Viterbo. Hear the game on Ted FM with the pre-game show starting at 6:45pm.