The SDSU men’s basketball team started their Summit League Tournament journey as they faced off against Western Illinois University at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, SD. The Jacks had an almost perfect performance as they cruised to a 87-50 victory.

 

It was complete domination for the Jacks from the start as they started the game on a 7-0 run and increased the lead to 15-2. They led 26-14 at the under 8 minute media timeout and went on 17-2 run to give them a 45-16 lead. They would take that momentum into halftime as they led 50-21. They would not look back as they led by as much as 40 in the second half.

 

Head Coach Scott Nagy said after the game “We’ve been tired of practicing, we’ve played one game in the last 14 days. If we’re good on defense we’re good on offense and that was the case tonight.”

 

The Jacks shot 47% for the game from the field while the Leathernecks shot 36%. SDSU out rebounded WIU 46 to 21 and had 21 offensive rebounds.

 

“It starts with our focus and setting the tone defensively and getting those defensive rebounds and then guys just playing with energy on the offensive glass.”said Cody Larson. “It’s a heart stat and it’s one of the things I look at to see if we’re playing good.

 

George Marshall led the Jacks with 13 points and had 11 of those in the first half, Deondre Parks added 12.

 

“Last weekend wasn’t a very good performance on defense so we just wanted to go out and set the tone.”said Marshall. “I just wanted to come out and play aggressive and the shots were there.”he added.

 

The Jacks had a total of 12 players score for them. “We love each other and we bring each other up every night as far as confidence and telling guys to shoot the ball and it goes in just off confidence.”Parks said.

 

The Jackrabbits will take on the winner of the South Dakota and Fort Wayne on Monday at 6 PM. “We spend a lot of time this year on staying humble and staying hungry and I don’t think our guys will think they are something special because of this win and they know the next few teams that we have to play are good basketball teams.”said Naggy.