Under the Radar Game of the Day – Saturday, February 14, 2015: North Dakota State at South Dakota State

North Dakota State at South Dakota State, 5:00 PM Eastern, Midco Sports/espn3

First place is on the line in the Summit League this afternoon as the North Dakota State Bison travel “down south” to take on the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.  The Bison enter the game with a one game lead in the Summit League standings, sitting at 10-2 in conference and 18-7 overall.  Their wins include a home win over South Dakota State, 72-69 back on January 4.  If the Bison can pull off the road victory this afternoon, they will be in command for the conference regular season title, especially with only three regular season games left on the schedule after today.  Keep an eye on Lawrence Alexander, a prolific scorer and three point shooter for the Bison who has scored 31 and 28 points in his last two games respectively.

The Jackrabbits of South Dakota State enter today’s game at 9-3 in Summit League play and 18-8 overall.  Despite being in second place, they do hold the league’s best RPI (106), BPI (123) and KenPom (105) ratings.  Since the January 4 loss at North Dakota State, South Dakota State has won 9 out of 10 games, only falling last week in an upset at Fort Wayne.  A win today pulls the Jackrabbits into a tie for first place and will make the last two weeks of conference regular season play very interesting as these two teams will try to keep pace with each other.  Cody Larson, George Marshall and Deondre Parks are just part of a balanced scoring attack that make the Jackrabbits one of the toughest teams to defend against in the Summit League.