It was a full 40 minutes, but NDSU defeated MSUM 80-74 in an exhibition contest this evening The Bison scored 44 points in the paint to earn the win 247sports.com/college/north-…

"With NDSU going under a lot, we had a lot of fade threes" Kayden Nelson He made 5 threes; MSUM had 11 as a team

"For me personally, anytime I come in this building and look at pictures of Lawrence Alexander, Taylor Braun, Bucky Maughan, I got choked up. This is special for me." Jason Kemp

"I think Max Iversen has got a chance to be a special basketball player" DR "Amir Danforth's competitive spirit is really high. Sometimes he punts the ball on first down, which isn't a good thing, but he's learning"

"We've got to get better" DR

"By the way, I love Melvin Bell" DR "He reflects Bison qualities in the blue collar way that he plays"

"He's been very dynamic" DR on Diaz

"Tonight was an awesome opportunity tonight for us" DR "I think they (MSUM) came in with a chip on our shoulder"

"I thought our rebounding definitely could have been better, but we'll grow from this for sure" Stefonowicz Rebounding margin was +0 (35-35) tonight between NDSU and MSUM

"No matter how hard the game gets, we're gonna fight and we're gonna execute and we're gonna play defense" Diaz

"Rob gets buckets" Stefonowicz on Diaz

"They wanted it more than us right away but we found a way to find a win" Stefonowicz

Final #NDSU 80 MSUM 74 Much like two years ago, the Dragons give the Bison a battle in an exhibition Bison shoot just 20% from deep, but make 24 free throws Rob Diaz leads all scorers with 23; Melvin Bell with a double/double (13 & 10)

Bison on 11-4 run, lead 71-67 Kaden Tate with a big steal and slam; He might have All-Summit defensive team abilities

Timeout 7:50 2H MSUM 63 #NDSU 60 Bison shooting 31% this half and are -8 on the glass

#NDSU 47 MSUM 47 15 minutes to play; NDSU has one made FG this half and already committed five fouls

Halftime #NDSU 44 MSUM 39 Dragons started 6-of-10 from three, now 7-of-17 to keep them in it Bison led by Rob Diaz's 14 points; team shooting 55% from the field and 67% from 2Pt range

Rob Diaz has shown very good touch so far Long Beach transfer has 8 points early, all around the rim

Timeout 11:01 1H #NDSU 20 MSUM 17 Santi Paz Vazquez with a reverse lay and Andrew Nagy nails a straight on three Santi, Carson Smith, Kaden Tate and Max Iversen the first 4 off the bench for NDSU