The SDSU men’s basketball team took down Mount Marty University Lancers at a home game in Frost Arena in Brookings, S.D. with a score of 92-70 Monday, Nov. 27.
Luke Appel was the highest scoring Jackrabbit on the court, putting up 16 points across seven field goals and two free throws. Three-fourths of his points came in the second half. Four other Jackrabbits put up double-digit numbers. Bubz Alvarez followed closely behind Appel’s total with a career-high 14 points, William Kyle III with 13 points, Zeke Mayo had 12 points, and Kalen Garry finished with 10 points.
Gary also made all four of his free throws, half of SDSU’s total. Former Wisconsin Badger Matthew Mors also put up a season-high nine points.
Heading into halftime the score was tied at 41, Jackrabbit head coach Eric Henderson was not happy with how his team was preforming.
“I talked to our guys at halftime,” Henderson said postgame. “You only get so many opportunities to play in front of these unbelievable fans and the impression you made for the first half was really, really disappointing and I was really upset in how we played.”
The Jacks went on several scoring runs during the game to take several large leads, their largest being a 27-point lead with less than a minute to go in the second half at 92-65. Part of this was helped by an initial 13-3 scoring run, then another 10-0 run in the waning minutes.
The Jackrabbits converted 53.6% of their shots, going 37-for-69, including 14 dunks while holding the Lancers to no dunks. Only four turnovers were committed by the Jackrabbits, while they scored 18 points from forced Mount Marty turnovers.
“Mount Marty played really hard,” Henderson said. “They made some really tough shots.”
The Lancers had two double-digit scorers on the court in Cole Bowen, who recorded the most points of the night at 22, including four three-pointers, and Tash Lunday, who scored 17 points, including a team-high five three-pointers, closely matching his season average of 18.8 points per game. The Lancers had a slight edge on assists with 16.
The largest scoring run for the Lancers was at 11-0. They only led by a maximum of three points in the first half. The Lancers led in three-pointers with 13, making 46% of their three-pointer shots, despite only making 43.6% of their 55 total shots at 24.
A total of 15 turnovers were committed by the Lancers, and they were only able to score five points from forced Jackrabbit turnovers.
The Jackrabbits improve to 3-4 on the year and have now won their last two games. The Lancers walk away with their seventh straight loss, their last win coming Oct. 30 over Union College.
Up next
The Jackrabbits’ will play the Towson University Tigers on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
The Tigers enter this contest with a 3-4 record. The Tigers are coming off a 67-58 victory at home over the Morgan State University Bears on Sunday, Nov. 26, snapping a three-game losing streak they suffered in the Shriner’s Children’s Charleston Classic, where they faced No. 6 ranked Houston, Wake Forest and North Texas, losing by an average of 17.3 points per game in those three contests.
In the Tigers’ last contest against Morgan State, they were led by freshman Tyler Tejada, who scored a team-high 15 points. Tejada has been averaging 11 points per game, the only player on the team so far this season averaging double-digit points. He has also made 42.4% of his shots and has averaged more than three rebounds per game.
Three other Tigers, Charles Thompson, Chase Paar, and Dylan Williamson, put up double-digit numbers in Sunday’s contest with 10 points apiece. Thompson leads the team in rebounds, averaging over eight per game. Williamson leads the team in steals, having eight on the year so far.
The Tigers are averaging 58.4 points per game, making an average of 39.6% of their shots, 29.7% of their three-pointers, and are averaging 38.3 rebounds per game.
Towson has the slight edge on the Jackrabbits in total blocked shots this season at 26, over the Jacks’ 25, and free throws made at 62.5% to the Jacks’ 61.6%.
The matchup will be available to watch on Midco Sports 1.
