Travis Kriens

For the first time since joining the Summit League more than two years ago, the SDSU men’s basketball team has swept a conference opponent as the Jacks took care of Centenary (7-15, 2-9) 81-75 in Shreveport, La., on Jan. 28.

In the first half, both teams combined for 52 points, while in the second half, each team scored 52 points.

Despite coming out on top on the road, head coach Scott Nagy is not satisfied just with the win.

“It’s the first time in the three years that we’ve been in the league that we’ve swept a team, and we talked about how difficult that would be,” said Nagy. “We talked before the game that this would be a difficult game, that we’d have to play 40 minutes and we did, but we shouldn’t have had to.

“If our kids would have done just a little bit better job and paid a little bit more attention and been a little bit more aggressive, this would have been a 20-point game instead of a six-point game,” said Nagy.

Freshman point guard Nate Wolters had the first of what should be many career days as he scored a career-high 17 points and had a career-best eight assists.

“In the second half, all we did is play off of Nate, we just screened for Nate and played off of him and he got people shots,” said Nagy. “It’s just so nice to have a guard like him, that if you put the ball in his hands and you know that it’s going to end up in a good spot.”

Clint Sargent added a team-high of 18 points, while Kai Williams had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season and was the only Jackrabbit to pull it off this season.

“It is important that we win, obviously. That’s one of the purposes for coming on the road,” Nagy said, but he would like to see a better effort from the whole team and know what he is going to get game in and game out.

“I guess for me, I would like to see our kids play to the level that they are capable,” Nagy said. “I’m telling players before the game, I am almost sick wondering if we are going to show up and I shouldn’t have to do that with juniors and seniors. And we didn’t (show up) at the start of the game.”

After struggling in recent years and losing in blow outs and heart breakers, the SDSU men’s basketball team seem to have turned it around. Now Nagy says that it is time to take the next step in becoming a successful program.

“If we are just after wins, then we are not doing the right thing. We have to challenge our kids and get them prepared,” he said. “I told them after the game, I am trying to raise and develop men and not boys. I have been way too soft with them, because I have felt like they have been beat down so much over the years.

“It should have been a 20 points game. We should have walked out of here easily and we didn’t,” Nagy said.