Sioux Falls, S.D. – Brett Olson (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in his final collegiate contest as the No.7 seed University of Denver men’s basketball fell to the No. 2 seed North Dakota State Bison, 61-50 Saturday night at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in front of a Summit League Championship record crowd of 9,773.
The Pioneers (12-18) led 27-23 coming out of halftime and Olson knocked down two free-throws to give DU a 29-23 lead. NDSU (21-9) would counter with a 13-0 run and the Pioneers would go without a field goal for the first 7:02 of the second half which gave the Bison a lead they would not relinquish.
Denver shot just 25.0 percent from the field (6-of-24) in the second half after shooting 47.6 percent (10-of-21) in the opening 20 minutes.
“Well, I mean, obviously, any end of the season is disappointing,” head coach Joe Scott said. “It is especially hard for Brett and Cam Griffin. I thought that we played pretty well tonight. The game got down to where it was obviously close and tight and the NDSU guys were able to make some plays to get the ball into the basket.”
Senior Cam Griffin (San Antonio, Texas) finished his last game at Denver with 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Griffin finished his career with 141 steals, which tied him with Chris Udofia for seventh all-time on the Pioneer career steals list.
The Crimson and Gold held The Summit League Player of the Year Lawrence Alexander to 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 from behind the arc.
Cam Delaney (Harker Heights, Texas) scored nine points, grabbed three rebounds and had two steals.
Olson wraps up his career at Denver on the top of the charts in many statistical categories at the University of Denver. Olson played and started his 124th game moving him into a tie for first place on the all-time games played list with Chris Udofia and Brian Stafford. The Highlands Ranch, Colo. native finished with 1,468 career points (sixth), 336 assists (eighth), 122 steals (11th) and 265 made 3-point field goals (t-second).
Denver shot just 35.6 percent (16-of-45), to North Dakota State’s 42.9 percent (18-of-42) from the field. The Pioneers were held to a season low 6.7 percent from behind the 3-point line (1-of-15). Denver held the Bison to just 9.1 percent (1-of-11) from 3-point range.
NDSU shot 60.0 percent from the free-throw line (24-of-40) to DU’s 70.8 percent (17-of-24). Olson finished the game with career-highs in free throw makes and attempts (11-of-13).
NDSU was led in the game by A.J. Jacobson who scored 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and pulled down six rebounds.
Notes: Jalen Love (Wichita, Kansas) returned to the lineup after missing the last five games due to injury.
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Recap courtesy and reprinted with permission of University of Denver athletics.