Manhattan College wanted the 100-meter sprint. North Dakota State wanted the 5K walk.
The Jaspers got the better of the styles in the second half to take a 76-62 men's basketball win Sunday night before 2,007 fans at the Bison Sports Arena.
It wasn't a 42-point blowout NDSU endured last year at Manhattan, something that was obvious to the Jasper players.
"I didn't recognize any of them," said Manhattan forward CJ Anderson. "You could tell that they play different. Last year we had them from the go and this year they made it a war."
The Bison, 5-6, saw a three-game winning streak end. Manhattan won its third straight and is 3-4 heading to South Dakota State on Tuesday.
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The Bison dictated the pace in the first half. The Jaspers committed 16 fouls that the Bison turned into 19 of 22 free throw shooting and a 31-30 halftime lead.
"We think we're a better half-court team than they are," said NDSU forward Brett Winkelman.
Four of the five Manhattan starters had at least two fouls. The Jaspers shot 24 percent and went into the intermission looking for answers.
They found them in the first five minutes of the second half. The Bison had three turnovers in that span - after just five in the first half - and Manhattan quickly grabbed a 43-35 advantage.
"They were averaging 18 turnovers and we turned them over 24 last year," said Manhattan head coach Bobby Gonzalez. "We wanted to speed it up. It went exactly opposite."
Anderson, the team's leading scorer who was bottled up most of the first half, then found room in the Bison defense for two field goals and a three-point play and it was 51-41 with 12:15 remaining.
Meanwhile, NDSU's leading scorer, Ben Woodside, was bottled up all night. Fresh off a 29-point performance in a win against Idaho State on Saturday night, the Bison guard didn't get his first field goal until 15 minutes left in the game and his first 3-point bucket until 2:15 remaining. He finished with 8 points on 2 of 11 shooting.
"It's hard to score against those guys," Woodside said. "They have good ball pressure."
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Andre Smith led the Bison with 21 points. Unlike the five Bison wins, NDSU couldn't get anybody else in double figures.
"We came out flat," Winkelman said.
That's not going to get it done against the Jaspers, who made the NCAA Tournament in 2003 - beating the University of Florida in the first round - and again in 2004.
"They have a lot more pieces to the puzzle," Gonzalez said of NDSU.
MANHATTAN (3-4): Anderson 7-12 5-10 19, Konovelchick 0-1 0-0 0, Dubois 6-12 0-1 12, Xavier 7-11 2-3 19, Wingate 3-4 4-5 11, Lee 0-0 0-0 0, Minor 1-3 5-6 7, Ngarndi 0-0 0-0 0, Austin 3-5 0-0 8, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-48 16-25 76.
NDSU (5-6): Winkelman 3-11 3-4 9, Hahn 0-2 2-2 2, Smith 6-12 9-10 21, Moormann 4-5 1-1 9, Woodside 2-11 3-4 8, Riley 0-4 2-2 2, Nelson 3-8 2-2 9, Brown 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 19-54 22-25 62.
Halftime: NDSU 31, MC 30. Total fouls: MC 22, NDSU 22. Fouled out: Smith. Technical foul: Manhattan coach Gonzalez. Rebounds: MC 28 (Anderson 8); NDSU 36 (Winkelman 11). 3-point goals: MC 6-13 (Anderson 0-1, Konovelchick 0-1, Xavier 3-4, Minor 0-2, Austin 2-4); NDSU 2-8 (Winkelman 0-1, Hahn 0-1, Smith 0-1, Woodside 1-4, Nelson 1-1). Assists: MC 18 (Minor 6); NDSU 7 (Nelson 4). Turnovers: MC 14 (Dubois 4); NDSU 16 (Smith 5). A-2,007.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546
