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MOORHEAD, Minn. - The Minnesota State University Dragons men's basketball team played their first exhibition game of the 2009-10 season on Wednesday evening against North Dakota State in a game where the NCAA DI institution won 88-71.

In the contest, both team's faced the challenge of youth and few players that returned to each squad for the upcoming season. The Bison lost their four leading scorers who led them to their first NCAA DI Tournament appearance and the Dragon's return only six members of last year's team.

The Dragon's freshman showed some strength for the inexperienced squad as post players, Alex Novak and Jordan May combined for 24 of the team's points. Novak also had seven rebounds.

Sophomore Jake Driscoll led the team in scoring with 17 points, hitting three of his six attempts behind the arc. Freshman Eric Olson was big on both ends of the court for the Red and White as he had nine boards and eight points in his Dragons debut.

The Dragons first half of action was plagued by nine turnovers, which was key for NDSU as they had 15 points in the game off of MSUM turnovers. The Bison committed 10 of their 11 game turnovers in the second half but the Dragons did not capitalize as only three points resulted.

The second half showed improvement for the young Dragon's squad, as they scored only three fewer points than the NCAA DI team and also out-rebounded their opponents by three.

Ten of MSUM's players logged over 12 minutes of game time, which will be helpful as the team will play one more exhibition game in preparation for the upcoming season. The Dragons will travel to Minneapolis on Monday to face the No. 25 University of Minnesota Gophers at 7 p.m. at Williams Arena.