Each of SDSU’s last three losses have been responded with a Jackrabbit win, Saturday’s matchup against Kansas City was no different. Following a 65-72 loss on the road against North Dakota State, the Jacks had a rather one-sided affair against the Roos winning 90-62. With the Jacks about two thirds of the way through their season, 11 games left on the schedule and being fourth in the Summit League standings, these final contests have more importance.
The first half of their Kansas City matchup saw both teams within two possessions of each other, South Dakota State leading Kansas City 36-32 partly due to the Jacks near 60% shooting from the field, albeit with an uninspiring 28.6 shooting percentage from three. In the second half, however, the three ball became a strength, SDSU shot 45.5% from beyond the arc and were able to improve their field goal percentage to 63.6%.
“We thought we were just like this close to really separating from Kansas City and give credit to them, cause they’re a really good team… We knew that we were just a stop or two away, and once we did that then we were able to make some shots down the stretch,” said senior forward Matthew Mors.
Throughout it all, the Roos three point percentage stayed mediocre, that figure hovering around 30% while their field shooting was about 40%. Joe Sayler led the Jacks in points with 22, he made seven field goals with five of them being three balls. Mors himself had a good shooting night. Mors had a 62.5% field efficiency on his 12 point night and he also added three offensive rebounds and five assists.
The Jacks have been dominant against the Roos in Brookings, not only are they 25-7 against them all time, but Kansas City’s last 13 trips to Brookings have ended in losses. As of now the team is .500, but one area that they have been exceptional at is playing at home, they are 7-1 in Brookings this season. SDSU was 13-1 at home last season and 11-3 the season prior.
SDSU won’t be able to rely on that stat this Thursday though, they’ll instead travel east to Minnesota to play St. Thomas at 8 p.m. The Tommies are second in the Summit League with their 15-5 record, being 4-1 in conference play and unbeaten at home. The Tommies are coming off a loss to North Dakota State, snapping their nine game winning streak. They committed 15 turnovers in the loss, the Bison scoring 21 points off of the turnovers.
Nolan Minessale leads St. Thomas in point total with 413, which is approximately 25% of the team’s total points this year. Minessale is second in the Summit League in points per game with 20.7 a game. Additionally, Minessale has the most assists in the Summit league with 89, 4.5 per game for the Sophomore guard. He’s on the floor about 75% of the game and shoots more than 53% from the field. His three point shooting isn’t exceptional at 29.5%, but there are five other players on the team (with more than six attempts) shooting 35% or better from three to defer too.
Nick Janowski is one of these five players, he has the most three point attempts on the team with 107, and is shooting 35.5% from three on the year. Janowski is second on the team in total points behind Minessale, he has 324 on the year and averages 16.2 points a game. He’s another Tommie in the top five of Summit League scoring with 16.2 points a game.
Three point shooting is something that the team doesn’t do a ton, but is effective when they take the shots. They make about nine a game, hitting them at a .353% margin. Three teams in the Summit League hit them at a better percentage, those being Denver, Omaha and South Dakota from the one spot to the third. The Tommies are exceptional in defending the three pointer, opponents hit about a third of their shots against St. Thomas, which is a number that only Omaha exceeds with .327%.
“They actually kinda uncharacteristically started off the year kinda not shooting the three ball really good but it’s really picked up probably the like last three, four weeks,” said head coach Bryan Peterson. “But they’re passing it very well, they’re taking care of the ball, kinda the things that they’ve always been able to do.”
The Jacks are at the part of the season where they are facing nothing but Summit League foes. Despite there not being a ton of games left in the season, Peterson mentioned that it’s still difficult to judge each team, regardless of record.
“The standings are what they are but you know you’ve got North Dakota State that’s obviously handled business, you know, and really taken care of business both on the road and at home with a 6-0 record but then it took double overtime to beat Oral Roberts who hasn’t got a win yet in league play,” said Peterson.
SDSU will face St. Thomas Thursday at eight p.m. in St. Paul, the game can be watched on the Summit League Network.
