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 with a commanding 21-point lead that was cut 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 trailed 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. Minnesota State responded with a scoring run and led by 28 points with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Bulldogs had offensive struggles, with the team only shooting 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.
Head coach Andy Bronkema gave props to Minnesota State’s team.
“I mean credit to Minnesota State,” Bronkema said. “I thought we started each half pretty well. Other than that, it was pretty much a buzzsaw that we went through. They made a lot of shots, they made a lot of plays. We just couldn’t get the usual momentum that we typically get in games, where we’re going on big runs of our own.”
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.
Senior guard Ben Davidson had a message for the underclassmen or future Bulldogs.
“The famous saying is ‘it’s easy to get to the top but it’s hard to stay up there’,” Davidson said. “I feel like in my six years, we’ve done a pretty good job of staying up there. I got two regular-season GLIAC titles, one postseason GLIAC title, and a regional championship. The formula is there you just got to stick around it’s not going to be easy.”
The Bulldog’s postseason run this year comes to an end. This year’s squad has overcome adversity with injuries and captured a GLIAC tournament title and a regional championship title on their quest to win it all falling just short.
Bronkema reflects on this year’s team and what this season has meant to coach this squad.
“It was a lot of fun. At the same time as a coach, you put pressure on yourself to be everything you can be for those guys,” Bronkema said. When you’re in college that long or when you have a red shirt year plus a COVID year, that’s a lot. That’s a long time in college. Then fitting the pieces together, keeping them motivated, and figuring out the right buttons to push. It was a lot of work and it tested me as a coach.”
The Bulldogs will enter the offseason with hopes of going further than this year. Ferris men’s basketball will return next fall.
CE – RS