SDSU drops Oral Roberts 79-63 in their conference opener. A 24-0 run to end the first half gave the Jackrabbits the jump over Oral Roberts in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“I didn’t realize it was that [24-0 run],” said head coach Eric Henderson. “We wanted to continue to worry about the next play. I knew that they were stuck on 21 [points] for a while and I wanted to keep them there.”
Efficiency was written all over this game for the Jacks as a whole shooting 55.1% on field goals(5th best this season), 44.4% from the arc (5th best this season) and 85% on free throws (2nd best this season).
Throughout the game, South Dakota State had five players in double-digit points with Luke Appel leading the team.
Appel went 5-6 tonight and 7-8 from the charity stripe, racking up a total of 18 in SDSU’s conference tournament debut. The Minnesota native grabbed two boards and three assists to finish the game.
To pair with multiple dunks, William Kyle III finished the night a rebound away from a double-double, scoring 16 points and snagging nine rebounds, going 7-12 on shots.
“It gives us so much energy [when Kyle III dunks],” said guard Zeke Mayo. “Nine times out of 10 it comes off a defensive stop and then he just gets out and runs the floor, outruns their ‘Bigs’. We reward those kinds of things.”
Mayo ended the night with 15 points, four assists and three rebounds while playing in 35 minutes of action (most on the Jackrabbits).
80% from three while shooting 4-7 in the game gave Charlie Easley 14 while Kalen Gary also went 4-7 with 10.
For Oral Roberts, Issac McBride led the Golden Eagle with 20 on the night, paired with five boards on nearly 40 minutes of action.
Jailen Bedford and Kareem Thompson both finished with 15 points. Though a solid showing for the three, the next highest points scored for Oral Roberts was three points (by Jailen Miller, Sir Issac Herron and DeShang Weaver).
South Dakota State will take the court for the second time this tournament on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center to play the winner of the NDSU and St. Thomas game which takes place tomorrow at 6 p.m.