The SDSU men’s basketball team relied on a series of clutch free throws from Deondre Parks to slide past Dakota Wesleyan 79-72 in their second and final exhibitioner.

After falling behind in the opening minutes, SDSU led for the final 25 minutes of the game, despite never putting the game out of reach until the final seconds.

“Dakota Wesleyan is good,” said head coach Scott Nagy. “At their level they’re going to be one of the top teams in the country. They’ve got an unbelievable amount of experience and [Dakota Wesleyan head coach] Matt’s [Wilber] done a great job with them. They’re very well coached.”

The Jacks got a big game out of freshman Reed Tellinghuisen who scored 19 points, going three for three from deep, and pulled down seven rebounds.

“It’s been unreal so far [playing basketball at SDSU],” Tellinghuisen said. “The first game I came out and was a little shaky, being my first game at Frost. I think I settled down a little more this game and I think I was a little more prepared to play.”

Cody Larson contributed 16 points and eight rebounds before fouling out as he battled Dakota Wesleyan’s Jalen Voss who led the Tigers with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Parks struggled from a shooting standpoint much of the game, making one of seven threes and going five of seventeen from the field, but with Larson out he stepped up in the final minutes, making seven of eight from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to ward off the Tigers who came as close as one point with just over a minute left.

As a team the Jacks were 19 of 30 on free throws.

“If we make our free throws and make layups this team looks a lot different,” Nagy said.

SDSU’s biggest edge came in the rebounding category where they had a 50 to 37 advantage. The Jacks had 42 points in the paint, but Nagy said they should have had 60 points in the paint.

The Jacks will start their regular season on the road against the University at Buffalo on Friday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m.