The South Dakota State men’s basketball team reached the century mark for the third time this season, knocking off the St. Thomas Tommies, 102-86.
The 16-point win marks the largest loss of the season for St. Thomas, all while avenging the Jacks prior loss to UST, a one-point win for the Tommies on Jan. 8.
SDSU improved to 7-3 in Summit League play with the win on a night where South Dakota State’s star center Oscar Cluff was quiet in the stat sheet, showing off the depth and versatility of the young group.
“We’re a ‘Next man up’ mentality type of squad,” said SDSU head coach Eric Henderson. “If Oscar doesn’t necessarily have his night or if he’s in foul trouble which was a big factor tonight, we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves putting somebody else in, let’s go.”
But it wasn’t easy going for the Jacks in Thursday’s statement win, SDSU trailed by nine points just over five minutes into the game. Henderson said postgame that the turnovers offensively were hurting the Jacks defensively as well.
“Most of it started with turning the basketball over in the first half and then they were able to get downhill and score on our defense that wasn’t set,” Henderson said. “They scored 26 points in the paint in the first half and a lot of them were uncontested layups.”
The Tommies shot nearly 57% from the floor in the first half, but after the Jacks’ halftime adjustments, that dropped to 40% from the field in the second half. On the other side, SDSU scored 61 points in the final 20 minutes, shooting over 66% from the floor and a season-high 52.6% from three-point range.
“We were a little disappointed with how we guarded the paint in the first half,” said Henderson. “We talked about trying to keep that ball out of there and we took care of the ball. We got a shot on all but four possessions.”
Owen Larson made his presence felt the most in the second half, exploding for 16 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field, adding five rebounds. Matthew Mors scored all 13 of his points in the second half as well.
“Late in the first half, at about the eight minutes, I got downhill once and hit a layup and that kind of got me in the zone,” said Larson, who finished with 22 points on the night.
Joe Sayler dropped 16 points in the win, while Kalen Garry played over 36 minutes and netted 16 points. Wilkinson totaled 10 points, four rebounds and two assists while Cluff had nine points and five rebounds.
Omaha
After last week’s victory over St. Thomas, the Jacks will have had seven days to prepare for its biggest game of the conference season, a home matchup with the Summit League-leading Omaha Mavericks.
UNO (16-10, 10-1 Summit) held the Jacks to just 32% from beyond the arc in their first matchup, an 87-80 victory on Jan. 11. Since these teams last faced off, the Mavericks have won six of their last seven conference games with their only skid coming against the USD Coyotes on Jan. 29.
The Mavericks will come into Brookings with lackluster numbers, hoisting the 6th best offense in the Summit League (76.1 ppg) and just the fourth-best defense in the conference (74.6 ppg).
With a team like Omaha, it’s tough to pinpoint exactly what makes them so great to kickstart a 10-1 Summit League record, but SDSU head coach Henderson attributes their experience in college basketball to this success.
“The margin is not always that big, but they always seem to be coming out on the right side,” said Henderson. “To me, what comes to mind is certainly their experience, their physicality, just being older and a little more physical.”
The Jacks will have to find ways to slow down Marquel Sutton and JJ White, as both players scored 24 points apiece on the Jacks in their first meeting.
Sutton averages 17 points, 7.5 rebounds and an assist per game, while White, a more facilitating guard, nets 13 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest.
The Thursday matchup tips off at 7 p.m. inside First Bank & Trust Arena and can be watched on the Summit League Network through Midco Sports Plus.
South Dakota
After facing off with the league-leading Mavericks, the Jacks will take their annual trip down to Vermillion for Round 2 of the Interstate Series with the South Dakota Coyotes.
After dropping four of its first six Summit League games, USD (15-10, 6-4 Summit) has rattled off four straight wins over North Dakota, Denver, Oral Roberts and Omaha, climbing up to the No. 4 seed in the Summit League.
The Jacks were able to breeze past the Coyotes in the first matchup in Brookings, a 90-71 victory over USD on Jan. 25, and have now won each of the last nine meetings, looking for a 10th straight Sunday.
When it comes to both ends of the floor, USD couldn’t be the more polar opposite, garnering the top-scoring offense in the conference (85.7 ppg) while sitting dead last defensively (83.2 ppg).
Chase Forte and Isaac Bruns are the players to watch for USD as Forte averages 16 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals per game while Bruns chips in 14 points and four rebounds as well.
Jacks at ‘Yotes tips off Sunday at 1 p.m. inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion and can be watched on CBS Sports Network.
