GAME NOTES: Saturday's Summit League quarterfinal matchups will come to a close when the seventh-seeded Denver Pioneers take on the second-seeded North Dakota State Bison at Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

The winner will advance through to Monday's semifinal round and will take on the winner of IUPUI and Oral Roberts.

Denver comes into the tournament after suffering a tough season-ending loss to Oral Roberts, 60-57, which snapped the team's two-game win streak. The Pioneers closed out the regular season with a 12-17 overall record and a 6-10 mark in conference play.

On Thursday, Feb. 26, North Dakota State lost its season finale to Oral Roberts, 74-58, which set the Bison back to 12-4 against conference competition. Two days later, top-seeded South Dakota State lost to South Dakota, giving the Bison a share of the regular-season Summit League crown. They earned the second seed after the tiebreaker with the Jackrabbits.

Denver perhaps gave NDSU more trouble in the regular season than any other Summit League program. The Bison won both matchups, but needed overtime in each clash to pick up the victories. NDSU defeated Denver by a combined 11 points in the regular season.

Denver had a difficult time containing an Oral Roberts offense on Saturday that was fresh off taking down North Dakota State two days prior. Oral Roberts shot 52.5 percent from the floor in the win, although the team connected on a mere 3-of-12 shooting from 3-point distance. Denver was held to 43.9 percent shooting in the game. Cam Griffin led the way with 14 points for the Pioneers, while Marcus Byrd contributed 13 points and Bryant Rucker chipped in 12 off the bench. Brett Olson grabbed a team-best five rebounds, but he also turned the ball over six times in the defeat.

Olson scored seven points against Oral Roberts, which only served to drop his team-leading scoring average ever so slightly. He finished the regular season and now heads into the postseason netting 13.6 ppg on 48.7 percent shooting from the floor, adding in 87 assists to pace the squad. Griffin checks in behind Olson in scoring at 11.5 ppg on 54.1 percent shooting (third in the conference), with a team-best 6.1 rpg. Nate Engesser rounds out a trio of double-digit scorers for the Pioneers this season at 10.5 ppg. Denver's offense hasn't been very strong this season, as it enters the tournament netting 62.6 ppg (second to last in the conference), while the defense allows 63.1 ppg to opponents.

It was a rough outing for North Dakota State last Thursday, especially in the first half, against Oral Roberts. The Bison connected on a mere 27.6 percent shooting in the opening frame, allowing the Golden Eagles to take a commanding 41-21 lead into the intermission. The Bison couldn't come back from that, even after shooting 46.2 percent in the second period. A.J. Jacobson netted 15 points to top the team, with four rebounds and four assists. Lawrence Alexander chipped in with 11 points and five boards, and Paul Miller came off the bench to add 10 points.

Alexander completed a stellar 2014-15 regular season as the leading scorer both on North Dakota State and in the Summit League. Alexander netted 43.2 percent of his tries for 19.1 ppg, also burying 44.5 percent of his 3-point attempts. Jacobson was the only other player for the Bison to own a double- digit scoring figure this season at 11.5 ppg. Dexter Werner brought down a team-leading 5.4 rpg, and Carlin Dupree dished out 80 assists to lead his NDSU squad. The Bison hit on 43.1 percent of their field-goal attempts this season for 65.1 ppg, while they allowed their opponents to net just 62.4 ppg, the best scoring defense in the league.

North Dakota State should be able to bounce back from its dismal performance over a week ago against a Denver team that isn't very strong on the offensive end. Still, the Pioneers gave the Bison fits in the regular season, which counts for something.