Basketball is Back

SDSU’s men open season with 2-0 record for the first time since 2010 

The SDSU men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 on Monday after defeating Weber State 85-68 at Frost Arena.

After handling Division-II Chadron State 87-52 in their season opener last Friday, the Jacks faced a tougher team in Weber State, who was predicted to win their conference by the coaches. The Jacks came out on fire and built an 11-2 lead and would not look back as they led by double digits most of the game.

“I was very concerned about this game, really good basketball team we beat tonight,” Head Coach Scott Nagy said. “The difference in the game was we forced them to turn it over 22 times.”

Senior George Marshall led the team with 17 points and made big shots all night.

“We were really sharp from the start, moved the ball, played with good pace and played aggressive, and that led to the hot start,” Marshall said.

Senior Deondre Parks saw his first action of the season after missing the first game due to a groin injury. Parks scored 16 points including 11 in the second half.

“He’s our leading returning scorer from last year and he’s a big threat offensively, so he definitely added a different element that we missed last game,” Marshall said.

Parks is fully back to 100 percent and that was the only way he was going to get to see the floor.

“Our trainer told me yesterday that he might be able to play some and I told her we don’t play some here, we either play or we don’t play,” Nagy said. “We made him do some stuff pretty hard in shootaround and he looks like he’s in pretty good shape to me.”

Redshirt freshman Mike Daum had 10 points off the bench for the Jackrabbits. Daum is one of three centers who will play for the Jackrabbits this season.

“I think rotation wise, we’re getting things figured out and we’re just doing what Coach Nagy tells us to do,” Daum said.

Center Joel Bolomboy was coming off a 20-point game for the Wildcats. He finished with 15 points but the Jacks forced him to turn the ball over five times.

“He’s a lot for us to handle, we’ll be hard-pressed to see a big man better than him this year,” Nagy said. “We do have three inexperienced so it was good for them. They have all the attributes that they need to get figured out and they’re all going to get playing time this year.”

The Jackrabbits start a five game road trip Thursday when they take on Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. They will also take on Texas Christian University of the Big 12 Conference on Sunday, then travel to Cancun for the Cancun Challenge tournament.

The Jacks will return home Dec. 2 to take on Wayne State College at 7 p.m.