Ferris State men’s basketball tournament run ends at the hands of No. 1 seed Minnesota State in a 98-70 blowout loss in the Elite Eight on Tuesday, March 26.
The Bulldogs were off to a good start against Minnesota State, as they only trailed by one with under 15 minutes to go in the first half. The Mavericks then began to pull away from Ferris commanding a 21-point lead that was cut down to 19 points before the half after senior guard Amari Lee knocked down a pair of free throws.
Down by 19 points at halftime, the Bulldogs found themselves trailing again in the tournament. Early in the second half, the lead was cut down to 11 points with just under 17 minutes remaining in the game after a 10-2 run in favor of Ferris. Unfortunately, that is where Minnesota State went on a scoring run and led by 28 points with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Bulldogs had offensive struggles, as the team only shot 37.5% from the field, 25% from three-point range, and 60% (15-of-25) free throws. Leading the team offensively was senior forward Desean Munson with 11 points and senior forward Deng Reng with 10 points.
Ferris ran into a hot Minnesota State offense that shot 58.4% from the field and 60.8% from three-point range. The Mavericks had three players reach double digits while two players scored 20-plus points in the contest.
With the loss in the Elite Eight, the Bulldogs’ 2023-24 campaign comes to an end. Ferris finished its season with an overall 28-8 record and just two rounds short of the national championship game.