Brittany Westerberg

Despite senior forward Ben Beran and two other Jackrabbits scoring in double-figures, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay beat SDSU Dec. 1 in Frost Arena 88-81.

Beran scored 20 points during the game, sophomore forward Kai Williams contributed 17 points and sophomore guard Garret Callahan pitched in 13 points.

“We had a great offensive night,” SDSU graduate assistant Alex Focke said. “That was the positive out of the game. Our offensive is not the issue; we just have to pick it up on the defensive end and start to rebound the basketball ? We play team defense and everyone needs to step it up.”

The loss drops the Jacks to 3-3 for the season, while UWGB improve to 5-2 with the win. UWGB had nine offensive rebounds in the first half. SDSU’s defense also allowed UWGB freshman guard Rahmon Fletcher to score a game-high 29 points off the bench on 12-of-14 shooting.

“As a freshman to score 29 points on the road is impressive,” Focke said, “but we feel as though we could have done a much better job on him. He hit some clutch shots and had great composure for a freshman.”

UWGB junior forward Mike Schachtner also had a good night, finishing the game with 19 points. Sophomore forward Randy Berry contributed 13 points and sophomore guard Troy Cotton hit 12 in the win.

Turnovers, which seemed to be the big issue in the first few games, were at a season-low this game, with SDSU only committing eight.

“After committing 22 turnovers against UW-Milwaukee and 24 against Montana, it is good to see us in the single digits,” Focke said. “It is hard to win games if you have 20 possessions or more that we don’t have the opportunity to score.”

Three and a half minutes into the game, the Jacks took their first lead on a three-pointer by freshman guard Clint Sargent and later were up by 10 with 4:22 left in the first half. UWGB, however took the lead just before halftime, 40-39.

The Jacks started to come back and tied it up six times in the second half. They took the lead again at 62-59 with a three-point shot by senior forward Michael Loney, his second of the night. That lead was stretched to seven before UWGB came back and tied the score at 66-all for the seventh time in the half.

UWGB scored on every possession but one in the last nine minutes of the game and made several critical free throws over the last five minutes, making the difference for the win.

The next game for the Jacks is Dec. 6 in a conference opener at Centenary, who is 5-3 on the season. After that, they face two-time defending conference champion Oral Roberts (6-3) on Dec. 8.