Waldorf Battles Back All Night, Valley City State Edges Win

VALLEY CITY, ND – The Warriors exemplified their name Saturday in how they fought. Down by as many as 14 points midway through the second half, Waldorf University kept battling and cut the margin to four points with 50 seconds left only to see Valley City State hold on from there an 86-77 men's basketball win.

Trailing by eight points at half, the Warriors saw the deficit almost double halfway through the second stanza to 14, 67-53, at 10:31 remaining. Waldorf chipped away and received back-to-back pairs of Justin Wiggins free throws to chop it down to six at 71-65 in half the time left. Khyle Washington pulled down a defensive rebound and then scored on the offensive end to make it an 81-77 tally at 50 seconds. The Vikings, though, ran off the final five points to hold on.

Coming off the bench, Khalil Grayson hit 9 of 14 field goal, including a pair of treys, for 21 points to pace Waldorf. Washington connected on 7 of 10 attempts for 15 points to go with six rebounds and four assists. Gabriel Sorensen drained three 3-pointers as part of his 13-point effort and four rebounds, while Ugo Ejiofor added 12 points and six boards. Wiggins gave the team two double-digit scorers of the non-starters with 12 points.

Cleveland Bedgood finished with a game-best 26 points for Valley City State. The home team also made 54.4% of his field goal attempts for the afternoon.

The Warriors' Ejiofor made the opening bucket of the day and the visitors held the lead throughout most of the first half. In fact, Waldorf enjoyed a lead of five points twice ona Grayson 3-pointer (25-20) and a Wiggins layup (27-22). The Vikings outscored the Warriors, 22-9, over the final eight minutes of the first half to run out to a 44-36 lead it did not give up.

Waldorf travels home where it will take on Viterbo College on Wednesday night (Feb. 14) in a 7:30 p.m. tip.

-Warriors-