Manhattan, Kan. - Sophomore Angel Rodriguez led a second-half outburst by Kansas State as the Wildcats pulled away to a post an 85-52 victory over North Dakota on Friday at Brimlage Coliseum. Rodriguez scored all of his game-high 13 points after halftime, while Thomas Gipson also added 13 points off the bench for KSU in the season openers for both teams.
Junior Troy Huff led UND with 12 points, but after trailing by only nine points at the break, the visitors could never find a rhythm in the second half. The Wildcats' outscored UND 49-25 in those final 20 minutes, holding the Green and White to just 27.3 percent shooting from the floor after the break.
"I thought our guys battled the first 20, but it was a typical BCS-Mid-Major game where they just really wore us out," UND head coach Brian Jones said.
K-State led by nine at the midway point of the first half, but UND closed to within a point at 26-25 on the strength of a 10-2 run. Aaron Anderson had four of his six points during that spurt, but the Wildcats would close the half on a 10-2 run of their own.
Unfortunately, UND went cold from the field, going the final 7:20 of the half without a basket as the Wildcats built their advantage back to nine at 36-27. UND's front court also ran into foul trouble and that took its toll on the team during that stretch and creeped into the second half.
Four of the team's five post players had at least three fouls by halftime and senior Doug Archer was saddled with four before the break. Starting big man Brandon Brekke was effective down low, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting from the floor, but he was limited to just 11 minutes in the contest because of foul trouble.
Rodriguez came out of the locker room on fire, making a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minute to quickly push his team's lead to double figures.
Unfortunately, UND went cold from the field, going the final 7:20 of the half without a basket as the Wildcats built their advantage back to nine at 36-27. UND's front court also ran into foul trouble and that took its toll on the team during that stretch and creeped into the second half.
Four of the team's five post players had at least three fouls by halftime and senior Doug Archer was saddled with four before the break. Starting big man Brandon Brekke was effective down low, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting from the floor, but he was limited to just 11 minutes in the contest because of foul trouble.
Rodriguez came out of the locker room on fire, making a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minute to quickly push his team's lead to double figures.
"The start of the second half was not what we needed," Jones added. "That is where they really got some separation on us."
Junior Alonzo Traylor scored seven points and added a team-high seven rebounds in his UND debut. Senior Jordan Allard added eight points and six rebounds in just his fourth career start.
Brekke was the first of three UND players to foul out at the midway point of the second half. In all, UND was whistled for 25 fouls and the Wildcats went 20-for-28 from the charity stripe.
UND will play its home opener on Wednesday against Crown College. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
-- Go UND --
