Jackrabbits win 25th straight at Frost Arena

ANDREW HOLTAN

Sports Reporter

 

The SDSU men’s basketball team earned a pair of wins over  the Univeristy of Nebraska-Omaha and Denver University last week.

The Jackrabbits came out with a 87-76 victory over Omaha at home last Thursday behind senior guards Deondre Parks and George Marshall’s big games.

 Marshall finished with 28 points, shooting 11-15 from the field and also grabbed six rebounds. Parks was not far behind as he finished with 22 points, shooting 8-10 from the field and grabbing seven rebounds.

 With this win, the Jacks won their 25th game in a row at Frost Arena, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation, and have also won 59 of their last 62 at home.

 “We have great students and great fans that just create a loud environment, and that’s awesome,” Marshall saidafter the game. “We don’t think about the streak, though. The streak is great – we love it – but we take ‘em one game at a time.”

 Summit League opponents are really starting to take notice at how hard it is to come into Frost Arena.

 “They have a great coach and really good players,” Omaha Coach Derrin Hansen said. “But then you add on top of that the environment in here – you can’t simulate that. That’s hard. The numbers they have in here really help them.”

 “We draw better than anyone in the league and we always have,” SDSU Coach Scott Nagy said.

 The Jacks then went to Denver Saturday and came out with a 67-56 victory. Redshirt freshman center Mike Daum led the team with 15 points and also had seven boards. Marshall finished with 13 points and senior forward Jake Bittle had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

 With this victory SDSU improved to 18-5 overall and 7-2 in the Summit League. They are in a tie with Omaha, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and Indiana University-Purdue Univerisy Indianapolis for first place in the Summit League.

 The Jacks will look to extend their home winning streak and distance themselves from the others as they take on IUPUI Saturday at home.

 IUPUI comes into the game with a sub par record of 11-13 but have really found their stride in conference play. The Jaguars defeated SDSU in Indianapolis earlier this year 74-67.

 The Jags are led by junior guard Darell Combs who is averaging 16.1 points per game. He is followed by junior forward Matt O’Leary and sophomore guard Jordan Pickett who both average just over 10 points a game.

The Jacks are led by Parks, averaging 15.9 points a game, Marshall is right behind him as he averages 15.3 points a game. The surprise of the year has been Daum who is averaging 13.6 points a game and only averages 19.4 minutes a game.

IUPUI is not much of an offensive juggernaut as they only score 69.3 points a game while SDSU averages 76.3 points a game. They will need to rely on turning SDSU over or hoping for a poor shooting night from the Jacks, which rarely happens at home.

SDSU will then head to Omaha for a rematch of last week’s tilt and the Mavericks will be looking to get revenge.