The North Dakota State University men's basketball team, behind the 26 point outing from senior forward Marshall Bjorklund, upset the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 73-69 in South Bend, Indiana.
Along with 26 from Bjorklund, the Bison junior guard Lawrence Alexander chip in 16 points and 14 boards while senior Taylor Braun went for 13 points in the victory. For the Fighting Irish, they were paced by 18 points from Pat Connaughton and 12 from Eric Atkins.
Braun came up with arguably the biggest two plays down the stretch for NDSU. With the Bison only up a point at 67-66, Braun was sent to the line with 31 seconds to go in the game. Braun calmly knocked down both free throws to give NDSU a three point lead.
Notre Dame tried to drive it on the Bison defense, but Braun came with some help defense and ended up stripping the ball away from the driving Jerian Grant. Braun led the break the other way and came up with the assist to sophomore Kory Brown, who throw it down for the game clinching dunk.
Alexander may have been the player of the game for NDSU as he played all 40 minutes and came up with the double-double while still only turning the ball over two times.
The Bison shot 51 percent from the field, including 5-10 from three point range, while forcing Notre Dame to take 29 three point shots. The Fighting Irish only connected on nine of those attempts.
With the victory, the Bison move to 7-3 overall. NDSU's next game is Saturday, December 14 at the Ohio State University as NDSU will take in the third ranked Buckeyes.