As they have every season of their existence, the Purple finished their season as a loser. Unlike a few of their losses just this year, there are only a handful of things that the blame can be hung on, which is some underhanded positivity.
Until the draft events start going off, the Purple will, for the most part, be a minor topic.
NDSU started with back-to-back Basketball games at Oral Roberts. The women played on Wednesday, a 62 - 70 loss and the men took the court on Thursday, also losing 73 - 79. Friday brought a visit by Wyoming to SHAC against the Wrestling team but only two of the nine bouts, Jared Franek & Luke Weber, went NDSU's way, leading to a 34 - 6 loss.
Which left the main event as NDSU & JMU had a rubber match to their recent rivalry. It was one of the best championship games that NDSU has been apart of & they came away with the trophy, 28 - 20, but for more on the game, check out the final S or N of the year.
The two-day week by Moorhead State started with a trip to Bemidji by the Basketball teams. Lead by a 20 & 11 game by Peyton Boom & 16 points by Sarah Jacobson in only 12 minutes, the women edged BSU 63 - 56. The men, in their turn, went to extra time for the victory but it took nine made free-throws by Bryce Irsfeld to do so. His 16 points were tied with Siman Sem for the most by Moorhead. It marked the 200th win by head coach Chad Walthall. Saturday both teams were in Crookston but only the women got the better of their opponent on the second night of the back-to-back. The men fell 61 - 94 while the women had a dominant 27 - 5 second quarter from which they cruised to a 95 - 59 victory. Also noteworthy is that off her double/double Peyton Boom was inserted into the starting lineup and finished as the leading scorer again with 19 points. Just behind her were Natalie Steichen (18), Megan Hintz (17) & Lauren Fech (12). Back at home the Wrestling team hosted SW MN St. but they weren't quite able to get a split.
Team corn had their one home game of the week as Bethel visited on Monday for men's Basketball. The Royals rolled to a 72 - 53 victory but the guy's returned to the court on Wednesday against Macalester. Despite 20 points by Bryden Urie & 18 from Braeton Motschenbacher, off the bench, on 6 of 7 from deep, the Cobbers lost again, 74 - 70. The women used a more balanced approach - with five players scoring at least nine points - to win 71 - 59, led by 14 from Emily Beseman as a reserve as well. The week concluded with the Hockey team playing at Northland on Friday night, finishing in a 2 - 2 tie and then at Superior which they lost 5 - 1. The women's Basketball team also played again on Saturday, against St. Catherine, but lost 84 - 68. The Wrestling team competed in the Ridgewater Open on Saturday as well.
In a mildly surprising move, at least on the surface, the Baseball team extended Miguel Sano for what could be a four year, 41 million dollar deal. It's surprising because it could possibly be a sign that the ownership will indeed do what's necessary to keep the team's talent around on more than a year to year basis. It does nothing to raise the level of the pitching but I find it encouraging!
A weekend that started out very promisingly ended with a thud by the Fargo ice team. Against Omaha they scored the first three goals of the game, Randklev, Kramer & Pavel before the lead was cut to a single shot with a period to play. In the third Kaden Bohlsen came through with a pair of goals to seal the victory. Omaha rebounded on Saturday with a 1-0 regulation win before Fargo traveled to Sioux City today, where they gave up five third-period scores and lost 5 - 1.
While much of the attention this week went the way of Frisco or San Francisco there was still some activity happening in our zip codes. On Thursday there was a West Fargo @ North Basketball doubleheader then on Friday, Davies hosted Sheyenne for one as well. I managed to capture some great images at each game, including a picture that is the very early leader for the photo of 2020.
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