The SDSU mens basketball team took on the University of South Dakota in the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament on Saturday night in front of a Summit League Tournament attendance record at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, SD. The Jacks never trailed as they defeated the Coyotes 78-65 sending them to their third championship game in the last four years.

 

It was all SDSU for the second straight game from the start. The Jacks started the game on fire from deep as they hit five out of their first six threes. They led 15-5 with just under 13 minutes left in the first half and would extend that lead to 43-21 with just under three minutes left in half which was their biggest of the half. They would head into the locker room with 44-25 lead. The first 10 minutes of the second half was much of the same and the Jacks cruised to victory.

 

Head Coach Scott Nagy said “Our guys had tremendous energy tonight. For the first 30 minutes we were sharp.”

 

SDSU fell to USD last weekend in Vermillion 80-64.

 

“We had the last loss on our minds and so we were ready to play today.”said George Marshall. “I think there was a source of pride about that and it didn’t feel very good last week.”

 

The Jacks shot 48% from the field for the game and 42% from three. They held the Yotes to 37% from the field and 21% from three.

 

“The biggest thing against USD is getting them stopped in transition and I thought we did that early and continued to do that the entire game.”said Junior Jake Bittle. “With good offensive players if you don’t let them get started it’s hard for them to get going.”added Nagy.

 

Junior Deondre Parks led all scorers with 21 points and George Marshall had 14 points and eight rebounds. “My teammates got me the ball when I was open and Coach Nagy always tells me to be aggressive and thats what I plan to do every time I get the ball.”said Parks.

 

SDSU will take on the winner of NDSU and Oral Roberts Tuesday night at 8:00 on ESPN2. “Either on of them is gonna be defense for us and it really doesn’t matter to us who we play, either way we know it’s gonna be a difficult game.”Nagy said about tomorrows game.”