Jackrabbit basketball lost 69-74 to St. Thomas last Thursday Jan. 22 and are under .500 on the season. They have alternated between wins and losses the past seven games in a row.
Nolan Minessale is usually the star of the show when it comes to Tommies basketball, but this time around it was Nick Jankowski and Carter Bjerke, who had a career night against the Jacks.
For Jankowski scoring is nothing unusual, he is fourth in the Summit League in scoring. Bjerke on the other hand was scoring in stride with Jankowski, tying him with a St. Thomas high 21 points.
The game’s leading scorer was SDSU’s Joe Sayler, who dropped 24 on the night with good efficiency, shooting 10-15 from the field and going 3-6 from three. He is 13th in the Summit League in scoring average with him averaging 13.4 points a game.
SDSU went down early in the game, St. Thomas built an early 8-4 advantage. The Jacks would take the lead back thanks to eight consecutive points by Joe Sayler, a layup and two threes.
After building up a 19-10 lead it came crumbling down, the Tommies responded with a 12-point-run to take a three point lead.
Both teams traded scoring streaks of their own before the first half ended with SDSU down 32-33.
After shooting 20% from three in the first half, SDSU responded by going 5-12 from beyond the arc.
Despite that and improving from 25% to 80% from the free throw line, SDSU wasn’t able to hang on to a lead and dropped their 11th game of the year.
One potential factor behind the loss was the previously mentioned free throw line, SDSU shot about 46% while St. Thomas went 75% with much greater volume. St. Thomas got 24 shots at the line compared to SDSU’s 13.
The game marked St. Thomas’ 28th home victory in a row and the Tommies are holding onto the second place spot in Summit League standings. SDSU is in 4th with a 3-3 conference record as opposed to St. Thomas’ 6-1 conference record.
“The second half you know it was kind of a game of runs throughout the entirety of the game,” said Head Coach Bryan Peterson. “But in the second half, you know we didn’t do a good enough job protecting the paint, keeping them off the foul line and that’s where they kind of really got us.”
St. Thomas scored 32 points in the paint, SDSU got 38.
OMAHA
SDSU will get a chance to improve that record against in-conference opponent Omaha. The Mavericks are one spot behind SDSU and are 3-4 in the Summit League.
SDSU traveling to Omaha might not be all that bad of a situation, Omaha is 1-3 at home so far against conference opponents, losing against Kansas City, North Dakota State and South Dakota.
Tony Osburn is the Mavericks leading scorer and is ninth in the conference in total scoring. He averages 14.2 points a game and is shooting 44.4% from the field, the highest percentage in his career. His three-ball has fallen off a bit since last year, he previously shot 39.2% from three, he now shoots 37.7%.
SDSU’s matchup against Omaha will be played in Omaha, Neb. at 7 p.m. Wednesday and can be watched on the Summit League Network.
