Jackrabbits came up short in first ever men’s Summit league game

Travis Kriens

Travis Kriens

Coming off one of their biggest wins this year over Texas Tech, Centenary (La.) was not only the first ever opponent for SDSU in 2007, but also the first the Summit League foe. A career night for sophomore Kai Williams was not enough to propel SDSU to a win as the Jacks lost to the Gents 80-77.

Williams had a career high with 28 points and 18 rebounds while shooting 10 of 15 for the field. No other Jack had more than 15 points or five rebounds.

As most conference games are, this was tightly contested throughout. The largest lead of the game was seven points by Centenary and the score was tied at 37 at halftime.

The last lead the Jacks had was with 16:48 in the second half on a Garrett Callahan three-pointer. The Jackrabbits had a chance to tie the game as time expired, but Callahan’s three-point shot was blocked by forward Lance Hill, his first block of the season.

SDSU (3-4) had a trio of other players join Williams with double digits in points. Senior forward Ben Beran ended up with 15 points, Callahan had 14 points and a game high six assists, while Clint Sargent put in 10 points.

Centenary was led by Hill and their leading scorer for the year Tyrone Hamilton. Each had 24 points as they were the only Gents to finish the game in double figures. Hill also had a team high 11 rebounds and was a perfect four of four from beyond three.

This was the first time since 2003 that Centenary (6-3) has started conference play with a victory. Centenary blocked nine SDSU shots with 6′ 9″ freshman Justin Glenn recording four of them.

Centenary’s current three game winning streak is their largest since late 2003 when their win over Arkansas Baptist gave them four wins in a row.

This was the first ever meeting between the two schools in men’s basketball as well as a game between the two teams that were picked ninth (Centenary) and 10th (SDSU) in the 10-team Summit League pre-season polls.

At halftime Centenary announced their offical mascot is now the Catahoula,no longer will C.O.L. have ladies and gentlemen mascot.