JAMESTOWN, N.D. – Valley City State reaches the 100-point mark for the second time this season in a 100-88 win over Bismarck State College in Frontier Conference Men's basketball Tuesday, January 20^th at the Jamestown Civic Center.

The Vikings are now 7-11 overall and 3-10 in the Frontier Conference. Bismarck State falls to 1-18 overall and 1-12 in the conference.

The first half was close early on with four ties in the first 7:07 of the game. But it took two technical foul free throws for the Vikings to finally take the lead. JR Cison made two technical foul shots with 10:55 to go in the first half to give the Vikings the 20-19 lead. It was the first lead of the game for the Vikings, and they would not give it up the rest of the way. After a Logan Deal put back made it 22-19 VCSU with 10:24 to go in the half, Carter Zeller would put back his own miss to make 22-21, that would be as close as the Mystics would get the rest of the night. Valley City would go on a 18-4 run over the next five minutes to take a 15-point lead. Two Deal free throws made it 40-25 with 5:10 to go in the first half.

That lead would reach 17 after a driving one-handed baby hook by Kaleb Larson made it 48-31 Vikings with 2:14 to go in the first half. Bismarck State, however, would end the first half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to ten. A three-pointer by Kamayua Black Jr. made the score 48-38 Valley City State and that was the score at halftime.

The Mystics continued that run by scoring the first six points of the second half to get the Vikings lead down to four. Black would score a driving layup to make the score 48-44 with 16:16 to go in the second half. That lead would stay between four and nine points for the next. Maddox Griffin would steal and inbound pass, set up the court to Deal, who would give it back to Griffin for the easy layup to make it 65-56 Vikings. That started VCSU on a 12-4 run to take a 15-point lead. Caden Grinde would cap the run with a long three-pointer from the wing to make it 75-60 with 7:56 to go in the second half.


The Mystics would get the lead down to six and a couple of occasions. A three-point play by Carter Zeller made it 82-76 Vikings. Then a driving layup by Jah Gulley made it 84-78 Vikings with 3:42 to go in the second half. The Vikings then went on a 10-0 run to take a 16-point lead. A three-pointer by Joel Nelson made it 94-78 Vikings with 2:41 to go in the second half. The lead would get down to nine by Griffin and Cison would combine to go 4 for 4 at the free throw line to seal the 100-88 win.

Four Vikings were in double figures, two had double-doubles, and one nearly had a triple-double. Kaleb Larson scored a career high 29 points to lead the Vikings' offense. Logan Deal had a career high 22 points and added 14 rebounds. JR Cison had eleven points, ten assists, and eight rebounds. Maddox Griffin scored eleven points for the Vikings. Taylor Bryant-Frey added nine.

UP NEXT: The Vikings are set to host Mayville State on Saturday, January 24^th with the location to be determined later this week.