North Dakota State Claims Second Summit League Title - Mar 16, 2014

Taylor Braun (6'7''-G-91) took charge in the closing two minutes, scoring 10-straight points, as North Dakota State rallied to defeat Fort Wayne 60-57 in the championship game of The Summit League Men's Basketball Tournament.
Braun, 6-7 senior from Newberg, Ore, had just five points when he started his run with a pair of free throws to tie the game at 51. He followed that with a three-point basket putting the Bison back in the lead at 54-53. After Steve Forbes hit two free throws for IPFW, Braun scored on a drive making it 56-55 Bison, then hit another basket, was fouled and made the three throw with 12 seconds left for a 59-55 NDSU lead.
The Mastodons led for much of the game, opening an eight-point margin at 35-27 before leading 35-30 at halftime.
Trayvonn Wright (6'7''-F-91) led NDSU with 19 points while Braun finished with 15 and Marshall Bjorklund (6'8''-F-91) 12. Braun and Kory Brown (6'4''-G-94) had six rebounds each.
Fort Wayne did not get a player into double figures although Pierre Bland (6'2''-G), Luis Jacobo (6'5''-F-91), and Michael Kibiloski (6'7''-F) scored nine each. Bland also had nine rebounds.
The Bison, who won The Summit League regular season title, will take a 25-6 record into the NCAA tournament. IPFW is 24-10.

Turning Point

After a back-and-forth second half, North Dakota State took a lead it would not relinquish at the 1:20 mark on a layup by Taylor Braun (6'7''-G-91). Braun would make it 59-55 on an and-one conversion to put the game out of reach.

Inside The Box Score

Both teams went a combined 5:47 without a field goal. North Dakota State's Trayvonn Wright hit a trey at the 10:10 mark and the next field goal in the game would not be scored until the 4:23 point of the second half on a three-pointer by Fort Wayne's Pierre Bland (6'2''-G).
North Dakota State scored 30 points in both halves.
Both teams were near identical in field goal percentage (IPFW 40.8 percent, NDSU 40.7 percent) and three-point field goal percentage (IPFW 35.3 percent, NDSU 31.3 percent), while both teams shot 78.6 percent from the line.
North Dakota State had three players reach double figures while Fort Wayne had three score nine points each.

News & Notes

With North Dakota State win, it was the first time since 1994, and second overall, that a Summit League Tournament has had its seeds hold all the way through.
Tonight's attendance of 4,263 brought the men's tournament attendance to 20,832. Men's and women's combined total attendance for the 2014 Championships was 37,304, which ranks as the third-best all-time attendance figure.
North Dakota State claims its second Summit League Tournament title (Bison also won in 2009).

Courtesy of Summit League

Summit League Tournament Final: North Dakota State - Fort Wayne 60-57

Summit League Tournament Semifinals:
North Dakota State - Denver 83-48
Fort Wayne - South Dakota State 64-60

All-Summit League 1st Team 2014

Bjorklund

Braun

Dykstra

Jacobo

Olson