Colton Kooima poured a game-high 25 points and Derek Buysse scored 23 in leading No.5 Northwestern to a 100-72 win over Valley City State tonight in Valley City, N.D. The Red Raiders improve to 2-0 this season and Valley City State drops 2-3. 

A night after scoring 26 points in the win over Jamestown, Kooima followed with a 25-point, four rebound effort Saturday aginst the Vikings. Kooima shot 9-of-17 from the field and also dished out three assists. Buysse drained four three-pointers en route to a 23-point effort. 

Key Plays...

Consecutive three-pointers by Riley Francis and a third by Kooima put Northwestern in front 15-4 after five minutes of play. From there, the Northwestern lead ranged from 5-11 points for the duration of the opening period with the Red Raiders up 43-36 at the break.

Leading by nine (54-45), Northwestern began a 17-6 run, capped by a Parker Mulder jumper and a Buysse three-pointer for a 20-point lead (71-51) at the 12-minute mark. The Red Raiders held at least a 20-point advantage the rest of the way and pushed the lead to as many as 30 with five minutes left. 

By the Numbers...

Northwestern shot 63% for the game, 70% (21/30) over the final 20 minutes; they went 11/23 (48%) from the three-point line; Valley City State shot 43% for the game, 27% (6/22) from the three-point arc

The Red Raiders held a big advantage (34-25) on the boards, led by Buysse with five; Kooima, Nathan Wedel, Parker Mulder and Isaac Heyer all  pulled down four boards

Wedel added 16 points and a game-high six assists; Riley Francis scored 14, going 2-for-2 from the three-point line

Justyn Galloway led VCSU with 22 points, followed  by Jayden Ferguson with 15 and Rashad Satahoo with 14