Mastodons overcome 18-point deficit to defeat NDSU men

By Jeff Kolpack

January 20, 2011 at 6:46 PM

FARGO - North Dakota State's fall in the Summit League men's basketball standings mirrored Thursday night's game against Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne. It was a slow and steady decline.

The Bison saw an 18-point first half lead fall apart in front of 2,409 fans at the Bison Sports Arena. The Mastodons owned the final three minutes to take an 84-80 victory.

The Mastodons took a 2-0 lead, then never saw their name on the top end of the scoreboard until Trey McCorkle's basket with 2:11 left in the game, which gave IPFW a 74-72 advantage. After Michael Tveidt missed in close, Zach Plackemeier's 3-pointer with 1:32 remaining made it 77-72.

Taylor Braun's field goal and Tveidt's steal and dunk got the Bison within a point. Down 79-76, Nate Zastrow's 3-point attempt at a tie was off with 30 seconds left.

The Bison fell to 3-5 in the league and 9-9 overall.

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.