FARGO -- Ben Woodside walked past Dane Fife in the Bison Sports Arena hallway, about a half hour after he and his North Dakota State men's basketball teammates cruised past Fife's Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne squad 74-43 Saturday night.
"There's Mr. Woodside," Fife, the 29-year-old IPFW head coach, said to the sixth-leading scorer in the nation. "He's playing some defense now."
Yes, Mr. Fife, the Bison are playing defense.
Before an announced crowd of 4,779 at the Bison Sports Arena, the Bison played their best defense of the season according to head coach Saul Phillips.
It was the fewest points a Bison team allowed during their two years of Summit League play. It was the fewest points a Bison team allowed since 2006 when it gave up just 34 against Jamestown College.
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"I tell you what," Fife said as Woodside kept walking by. "Saul and his coaches have done a really good job to get their team to that next level. They could always score. Now they can play defense."
The Bison, experiencing a sluggish first half offensively, limited IPFW to 24 first-half points. During the first five minutes of the second half, the Bison offense came to life with a 17-2 run and ended up limiting IPFW to 19 second-half points.
"In order to compete with North Dakota State, you have to have a great night offensively -- especially on their home court," Fife said. "We went in the tank."
The win -- NDSU's eighth straight and 12th straight at home -- gives the Bison a 10-1 Summit League record. That's good for first place -- one half game ahead of Oral Roberts, which won at Centenary Saturday 84-71. Coupled with Oakland's 74-68 overtime loss at South Dakota State, it is becoming more a two-team race for the regular-season title.
The Bison also improved to 16-5 overall -- a record that could bump them into the top 100 of the collegerpi.com rankings, critical in pairing teams for the Feb. 21 ESPNU Bracketbuster extravaganza that includes 102 mid to low major teams. The Bison are hoping to be one of the teams that will play in 13 nationally-televised games when the pairings are announced Monday.
"I think this team is very deserving of that," Phillips said.
The Bison certainly looked deserving during the first 5 minutes and 16 seconds of the second half when they ended any hopes that IPFW had, after trailing only 33-24 at halftime.
During the 17-2 rally, Michael Tveidt felt it offensively and defensively. The 6-foot-7 sophomore from Pierre, S.D., stripped the ball from IPFW's Deilvez Yearby twice. On the other end of the floor, Tveidt drained two long 3-pointers.
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"It's that consistency on defense," Tveidt said. "We didn't let up on them."
"He's been one of our best defenders all year long," Woodside said of Tveidt. "It seems like it has kind of come natural to him to this year."
Almost as natural as the Bison putting points on the scoreboard.
The Bison, who rank ninth nationally averaging 81.9 points per game, got double-figure scoring from four players. Woodside led the way with 21 points while Tveidt, Brett Winkelman and Mike Nelson each scored 10 points.
"They've got too many weapons," said Fife, whose team lost to the Bison 67-60 in Fort Wayne on New Year's Eve.
The Bison scored on 9 of their first 13 possessions to build a 22-8 lead. But IPFW outscored the Bison 16-11 during the final 11 minutes of the first half.
The Bison didn't look like the team that averages only 11.6 turnovers a game, which ranks 12th nationally. They had eight turnovers at halftime.
"Our offense got a little stagnant, we weren't moving the ball," Woodside said. "We wanted to move the ball better. When that ball gets moving like it did in the second half, we are kind of hard to guard."
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Just ask Mr. Fife.
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IPFW (8-14): David Carson 10-21 2-2 22, Trey McCorkle 3-5 0-0 6, Ben Botts 2-9 0-0 5, Nick Daniels 1-5 0-0 2, Zach Plackemeier 1-3 0-1 2, John Peckinpaugh 1-1 0-0 2, Jeremy Mixon 0-3 2-2 2, Terry Bembry 1-1 0-2 2, Igor Mocebic 0-1 0-0 0, Deilvez Yearby 0-4 0-0 0, Jakari Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Aaron Richie 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-55 4-7 43.
NDSU (16-5): Ben Woodside 8-12 2-2 21, Mike Nelson 4-6 1-3 10, Brett Winkelman 3-8 3-4 10, Michael Tveidt 4-6 0-0 10, Freddy Coleman 4-8 0-1 9, Eric Carlson 1-2 3-6 5, DeJuan Flowers 1-1 1-2 3, Josh Vaughan 1-3 0-0 3, Lorenzo Riley 1-1 0-0 2, Lucas Moormann 0-2 1-2 1, Sam Sussenguth 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Pennick 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 27-50 11-20 74.
Halftime: NDSU 33, IPFW 24. Total fouls: IPFW 16, NDSU 12. 3-point goals: IPFW 1-9 (Botts 1-3, Varson 0-2, Daniels 0-3, Mixon 0-1), NDSU 9-13 (Woodside 3-4, Tveidt 2-2, Nelson 1-3, Winkelman 1-1, Coleman 1-1, Vaughan 1-2). Rebounds: IPFW 23 (Carson 5), NDSU 38 (Flowers 7). Assists: IPFW 6 (Peckinpaugh 2), NDSU 16 (Woodside 3, Nelson 3, Moormann 3). Blocks: IPFW 1 (Yearby), NDSU 7 (Winkelman 2, Sussenguth 2).
