The North Dakota State University Bison hosted the University of Jamestown Jimmies on
Monday Night en route to a 96-59 win in their season opener.
The Bison made the fans wait to be seated for a couple minutes when Jeremiah Burke knocked
down a jumper to start the scoring for the Bison. There were some new faces on the court Monday night as, Mason Miller, Brennan Watkins, Andy Stefonowicz, and Luke Kabubske all scored their first Bison points of their career. North Dakota State left the first half up 42-32 and didn’t look back once the second half begun.
Outscoring the Jimmies in the second half 54-27, a half that never saw the scoreboard become
close. Senior guard Jacari White led the Bison in scoring with 22 points, a new career high, while
shooting 8-11 from the field overall and continuing his three-point success from last year, into this season as he shot 5-7 from beyond the arc. He also finished with six rebounds.
Transfer Mason Miller introduced the Bison faithful with his own three-point success, shooting 3-5
in his debut for three. Freshman Andy Stefonowicz and Treyson Anderson both played well in their debuts as well. Stefonowicz finished with five points and six assists. Anderson finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double in his debut. One of Stefonowicz assists, was a bounce pass in the lane that found Anderson for a monster slam late in the second half, to put
the icing on the cake for the Bison.
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The Bison will look to stay undefeated and defend their home court once again this time against a familiar face in Boden Skunberg and Illinois State on Thursday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
North Dakota State is coming off a lackluster year seeing their overall record finish at 15-17 with a quarterfinal 10-point defeat against St. Thomas in the 2023-24 Summit League Tournament. Entering his 10th year as the head coach, Dave Richman is excited but looking forward to improving on the overall record of his squad for this upcoming year, with the ultimate goal of making it back to the Summit League Championship game, this time winning the whole tournament.
The Bison are headed into regular season play, picked to finish third in the Summit League. A familiar scene to Coach Richman, as the Bison have finished third or higher during all 10 years of Coach Richman’s tenure.
Senior standout Jacari White is coming off a great Junior season where the guard found increases in almost every major statistical category. After his junior year concluded he finished with 10.3 ppg, two boards, and 1.7 assists per game, while also being elected to the Summit League all-defensive team, leading last year’s Bison squad in total steals. Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Summit league announced that White, had been voted onto the Summit League preseason All-League team.
With the loss of Boden Skunberg this past off season, transferring to Illinois State, the Bison welcomed in a couple new players. Brennan Watkins, Luke Kesubke, Mason Miller, Jackson Moni, along with five total freshman have the Bison players feeling confident about the revamped roster and the games to follow the University of Jamestown game.
