Men…<\/p>\n
LA CROSSE, WIS. (vcsu.edu)\u2013 Logan Nelson<\/a> made four 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second half Saturday, helping the Valley City State men’s basketball team open up a 27-point lead en route to a 69-55 victory at Viterbo University.<\/p>\n The Vikings made 14 3-pointers \u2013 including four each by Nelson and senior Christian Kvilvang<\/a> \u2013 as they picked up their first conference victory of the season and handed Viterbo its first conference loss.<\/p>\n VCSU is now 4-10 overall and 1-2 in the North Star Athletic Association. Viterbo drops to 9-8 overall and 2-1 in NSAA play. The win completed a doubleheader sweep for the Vikings after VCSU’s women defeated Viterbo\u00a069-61 earlier in the day.<\/p>\n The Viking men sank eight 3-pointers in the first half, including three by Kvilvang, to open up a 37-18 advantage at the break. VCSU started the second half with Nelson’s 3-point barrage as he scored the first 12 points for the Vikings out of the locker room. His third 3-pointer gave VCSU its biggest lead of the night at 46-19 with 17:10 to go.<\/p>\n Viterbo chipped away and eventually cut the lead to 60-50 with five minutes remaining. But the Vikings held Viterbo to just five points in the final five minutes, securing the victory with their defensive effort down the stretch.<\/p>\n “Our guys played really well tonight,” said VCSU head coach Ryan Montgomery<\/a>. “We did a good job of executing the game plan. We need to do a better job of sustaining leads, but that was a good win tonight and we’re excited to come back and play at home Friday.”<\/p>\n Nelson’s 18 points led all scorers in the game. Kvilvang was 4-for-6 from 3-point range and he finished with 14 points. Michael Cornelious<\/a> also posted 14 points, going 8-for-10 at the free throw line. Jake Skelly<\/a> added seven points and seven rebounds, and both Hunter McCalla<\/a> and Connor Entzi<\/a> hit two 3’s off the bench to finish with six points.<\/p>\n VCSU shot just 40 percent from the field (19-47) but was 44 percent on 3’s (14-32) and 81 percent at the line (17-21). The Vikings finished with 12 assists and eight turnovers. Six different Vikings made 3-pointers.<\/p>\n Viterbo finished the night shooting 36 percent overall (20-56), 17 percent on 3’s (3-18) and 71 percent at the line (12-17). Viterbo had nine assists and eight turnovers. The V-Hawks held a slight 37-33 advantage on the glass, including a 12-6 edge in offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n Jake Schroeckenthaler scored 15 points off the bench to lead Viterbo. Cade Anderson and Jason Tichy had 10 points each.<\/p>\n Up next: <\/strong>Valley City State (4-10, 1-2 NSAA) hosts Dakota State University on Friday, Jan. 11, for a women’s and men’s doubleheader at 5:30\/7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Women…<\/p>\n LA CROSSE, WIS. (VCSU.edu)\u00a0 \u00a0\u2013 The Valley City State women’s basketball team pulled away in the final minutes Saturday afternoon as the Vikings earned a much-needed road victory at Viterbo University, 69-61.<\/p>\n Coming off a loss Friday night at Waldorf, the Vikings bounced back with the conference win Saturday in Wisconsin. VCSU is now 5-9 overall and 2-1 in the North Star Athletic Association. Viterbo University drops to 7-9 overall and 0-3 in the NSAA.<\/p>\n The Vikings led 49-48 after three quarters against the V-Hawks and were clinging to a 60-58 lead with four minutes remaining. VCSU closed strong though, ending the game with a 9-3 run to pull away. Mackenzie Huber<\/a> scored inside to make it 62-58, and then Emily Schafer<\/a> nailed the dagger \u2013 a 3-pointer with 2:09 remaining that put the Vikings ahead 65-58. VCSU made enough free throws in the final minute to ice the victory.<\/p>\n Saturday’s game featured 10 ties and 13 lead changes, including eight lead changes in a back-and-forth third quarter. Dierra Diegel<\/a>‘s two free throws with 16 seconds left in the third quarter put the Vikings ahead 49-48, and VCSU led the rest of the way.<\/p>\n “I am proud of our team for battling through adversity and finding a way to win against a good Viterbo team,” said VCSU head coach Vanessa Keeler-Johnson<\/a>. “We have areas we need to clean up and address, but overall I’m proud of this group for gutting out a win.”<\/span><\/p>\n Huber went 7-for-9 from the field and finished with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Vikings. Schafer was a major spark off with bench for VCSU, making three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Alli Vandal<\/a> also reached double figures with 11 points, while Kaitlin Connor<\/a> had eight points and two blocks off the bench and Gabby Martin<\/a> posted seven points and three assists. Annie Swenson<\/a> nailed two 3-pointers and finished with six points.<\/p>\n Valley City State held a 42-27 rebounding advantage. The Vikings committed 24 turnovers and had 15 assists. Viterbo turned it over 15 times and had 10 assists.<\/p>\n The Vikings shot 47 percent overall (23-49), 31 percent on 3’s (5-16), and 75 percent at the line (18-24). Viterbo finished at 39 percent overall (23-59), 29 percent on 3’s (8-28) and 54 percent on free throws (7-13).<\/p>\n Alyssa Nilssen led the V-Hawks with 13 points and five rebounds, and Ambree Schlosser scored 12 points for the V-Hawks.<\/p>\n Up next:<\/strong> Valley City State (5-9, 2-1 NSAA) hosts Dakota State University on Friday, Jan. 11, for a women’s and\u00a0men’s doubleheader at 5:30\/7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Men… LA CROSSE, WIS. (vcsu.edu)\u2013 Logan Nelson made four 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second half Saturday, helping the Valley City State men’s basketball team open up a 27-point lead en route to a 69-55 victory at Viterbo University. The Vikings made 14 3-pointers \u2013 including four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161542,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161517\/revisions\/161542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}