VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- Eric Pierce recorded numerous acrobatic finishes at the rim, including a contender for dunk of the year early in the second half, to lead the Bellevue University men's basketball team to an 89-77 win over Valley City State. The game was a key battle between two of the three teams tied for second place in the North Star Athletic Association on Friday evening at the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse.
Bellevue moves into sole possession of second place as they up their record to 16-12 (8-4 NSAA) while Valley City drops to 16-6 (7-5) with their second defeat in the last three games.
Pierce led all players with 24 points and 10 rebounds as he recorded his first double-double as a Bruin. VCSU had no answer for the athletic 6-6 wing who got to the rim with ease and was a perfect 6-for-6 on lay-up and dunks.
He was joined by teammates Michael Wright (17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists), Jaylen Wiltz (16 points, 4 rebounds), and Justin Motley (15 points, 5 rebounds) in double figures.
The early action was a lot of back-and-forth with both teams piling up mini-runs. Valley City hit a bucket out of the media break to grab a 21-18 lead which Bellevue answered with five-straight points before a 7-0 Viking run gave the host side a 28-23 lead.
Jaylen Wiltz put an end to the VCSU spurt with a three-pointer to jump-start a 12-3 BU run that gave the Bruins their biggest advantage of the first half at 35-31. Cayden Rickert responded with a three for VCSU and the teams entered halftime tied at 39-all.
Pierce led all players with 12 points and seven boards at the intermission. Wiltz and Wright chipped in eight and seven, respectively, in supporting roles. Bellevue out-shot Valley City 54-46% in the half, going 4-of-10 from deep compared with VCSU's 2-of-7 long-range effort.
Jalen Addison paced the Vikings in the opening 20 minutes with eight points as one of seven VCSU players to score at least four in the half.
Bellevue opened the second half with an 8-2 statement run and never trailed again. Wright opened the scoring with an elbow trey and Pierce capped off the run with an authoritative dunk in which he poster-ized Connor Entzi and made the ensuing free throw for a three-point play.
The Vikings closed to within a point, 53-52, when Joshua Kelly knocked down a triple at the top of the key.
With the Bruins ahead by three, Paulo Araujo stepped up and hit one of the biggest shots of the game, draining a corner three off an inbounds pass with just six seconds on the shot clock to put BU up by six.
That came in the midst of a 16-2 Bellevue run that saw the Bruins take their first double digit lead at 10:44 on a bucket from Motley and push their lead to a game-high 15 with just under 9:30 to play and a hand-switching layup from Pierce.
Valley City trimmed the deficit to 10 a couple times but couldn't bring the Bruin lead to single digits on a reverse lay-in from Entzi.
Bellevue executed well down at the free throw line down the stretch and hit on 20-of-26 attempts from the charity stripe for the game. The 77% clip was well-above their season-average of 65.5%.
Addison paced the Vikings with 19 points and totaled five boards. Kevin Schramm added 14 to go along with his team-high six boards and Kelly finished with 11 points.
The Bruins play their final regular-season road game tomorrow against Dickinson State University (8-14/5-6 NSAA). Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. from DSU's Scott Gymnasium.
