FOREST CITY, Iowa -- North Central University (NCU) men's basketball clashed with the Waldorf University (WU) Warriors in an NCAA-NAIA cross divisional matchup on Saturday evening. In a road game where two of the Warriors' guards managed to combine for 49 of the team's total 71 points, the Rams were unable to keep pace with the backcourt. NCU ended up narrowly falling to WU in a battle by a final score of 71-62.

Game Recap

It was Waldorf who managed to jump out to an early lead at the beginning of the first half. After stringing together an early 9-0 run from the 15:54 mark to about 13 minutes, the Warriors attempted to build their lead on the Rams. After the early run, Seth Fuqua (Colorado Springs, CO, Vanguard Charter) was instrumental in keeping NCU within striking distance. Fuqua, shot 8-of-13 from the floor in the first half alone, which brought his total heading into halftime to 19 points. Despite the efforts to grasp the lead, the Warriors held onto by holding multiple Rams to low-scoring first halves and commanded a 39-32 lead at the break.

The latter 20 minutes of action is when more Rams started to step up. Jalen Dunlap (Houston, TX, Hightower High School) contributed 7 points while coming away with a couple of steals on the defensive side. Griffin Trull (Sacramento, CA, Sacramento Adventist) also chipped in a couple threes of his own to help the Rams gather some momentum. NCU outpaced WU in total rebounds, but the blue and gold were unable to gain the advantage in second chance points (9 to the Warriors' 11). Waldorf holding North Central to shooting 20 percent from behind the arc in the second half fueled the Warriors' way to not giving up the lead at any point during the contest.

Key Performer(s)

• Fuqua stuffed the stat sheet in this one and led the Rams in all capacities on the offensive side. The Vanguard Charter product put up 30 points while coming down with 3 rebounds and swiping away 2 steals.
• Trull came up big for the Rams off the bench by contributing 11 points and shooting 3-of-7 from three.

Looking Ahead

NCU men's basketball will hit Thanksgiving break with a 1-2 overall record on the 2020-21 campaign thus far. As North Central looks ahead to their next matchup, they will compete back on their home floor against the Trinity Bible College (TBC) Lions on Friday, December 4th. Tip-off for the game is set for 7:00pm. A reminder that only essentially game staff personnel will be granted admittance, but fans and family can navigate to ncurams.com/watch to enjoy a free live stream of the game.