By Jadon Frank

Beginning the winter semester with a modular week of classes, and entering the first weekend of the second semester on a bye week, Briercrest men's basketball travelled down to North Dakota for rare mid-week games against Dickinson State University and Williston State College. 

Briercrest began the US trip with a 95-60 loss to Dickinson State Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013. 

Briercrest Head coach Rod Adrian was pleased with his team’s performance against Dickinson.

"Exhibition loss with contributions from all," Adrian said. "We travelled without three starters and competed hard right to the end with Colossians 3:23 on our minds.  The game plan was to play FAST and we controlled the pace from the outset and played with Dickinson throughout the first half.  They took over at the end of the first half and we couldn’t overcome the deficit.”

“Big game tonight from leading scorer Brandon Friesen with 22 points including 12-for-12 from the free throw line,” Adrian Continued. “Kendell Boese finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds.  Lucas Mannes started the game and ended with 11 points, 3 assists.”

“I was pleased with the effort and am extremely happy to be back playing again after a long break,” Adrian said. “Tomorrow we travel to Williston State College, and expect to continue on our road to improvement in preparation for a great semester.”

Day two of the trip, Thursday, Jan. 10, saw Briercrest lose 114-79 to an inspired Williston State Tetons team.

Offense was the operative word as Williston scored 55 in the first half and 59 in the second en-route to the big victory. Defensively Williston held Briercrest to just 31 first half points on their way to a 24 point first half lead.

Briercrest's Lucas Mannes led all scorers with 31 points to go with three rebounds, three assists and two steals, while the Tetons had five players in double figures led by Darwin Ellis’ 26. Williston got 51 points from their bench while Briercrest only managed five bench points. Briercrest's Kendell Boese had a strong game with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals while Brandon Friesen chipped in with 17 points, one block and three rebounds. Caleb Klassen led Briercrest with six rebounds to go with nine points

Briercrest was outscored 55-31 in the first half, but had a more respectable 59-48 score in the second half.