The Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 98-89 in an exhibition game on Thursday night in Sioux Falls. This game was the first major event in the newly constructed Sanford Pentagon Arena.
The Sanford Pentagon is now officially open with the first public event being an NBA game. The sell out crowd was cheering either for the Timberwolves or former SDSU standout Nate Wolters. Wolters is statistically the best basketball player to play at South Dakota State. He is currently in his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks. Wolters says he had a hunch there would be a lot of blue and gold in the stands cheering him on, because Sioux Falls is only 50 miles away from where he played his college ball.
"Yeah I kind of expected it, they’re great fans. They supported me all four years and I knew they were going to come out strong and they did. It was a lot of fun to play for them one more time," Wolters says.
Wolters put up some decent numbers in Thursday nights loss to the Wolves as he accumulated 10 points along with 2 assists and 2 rebounds. He says right now he’s still trying to transition from college to professional.
"Just the speed and athleticism is totally different. So, it’s something I’m still learning right now but we’ve got a lot of good group of guys here that are going to help me out," Wolters says.
The Pentagon still had its fair share of Wolves fans in attendance as well because technically this was listed as a home game for Minnesota. Timberwolves Forward Kevin Love says he enjoys playing in Sioux Falls because it reminds him that Timberwolves fans exist outside of Minnesota. He says the experience of playing in the Sanford Pentagon was cool.
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"Pentagon was great, great atmosphere. I was just mentioning to the other media members that it’s something straight out of Hoosiers. So, they’ve got a great vibe here, fans are great and hopefully we’ll be back soon," Love says.
Next up for the Pentagon is a D1 college basketball game. On Friday November 8, the University of Wisconsin plays St. Johns in a regular season game. This event is also expected to sell out.
