IPFW wins the rematch with the Jacks

Thursday, January 31

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7 p.m. (ET)

South Dakota State University

IPFW

Ben Beran signs to play pro basketball in Germany

1/31/2008 1:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Senior Ben Beran scored 22 points for South Dakota State, sophomore Kai Williams scored 15 and freshman Dale Moss matched his career-high with ten points, but the Jackrabbits came up on the short end of a 73-63 contest on Thursday in front of 1,839 fans at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The loss sends the Jackrabbits to 7-14 overall, 2-8 in The Summit League, while IPFW improves to 8-13 overall, 5-5 in league play.

South Dakota State scored first and opened up an early seven-point lead with, what ended up being the Jacks only three-point basket of the game. Garrett Callahan made the shot to put the Jacks up 13-6 with 13:33 to play in the first half.

IPFW responded with a 10-2 run to tie the game at 16-all, which kicked off a six minute span that saw seven lead changes and a pair of ties before the Mastodons pulled away for a 36-27 halftime lead.

The Mastodons pushed that lead to 12 points early in the second half before the Jackrabbits started to battle their way back into the game, eventually cutting the lead to three points at 47-44 with just over 12 minutes to play.

The Jacks would continue to hang around, and pulled within two at 61-59 on a Williams lay-up and foul with 4:35 left in the game, but IPFW came back with five quick points to push the lead back to seven points, and never let the Jacks get closer than five the rest of the night.

SDSU dominated the boards in the game 43-24, including a 16-4 edge on the offensive glass, but committed seven more turnovers, 14-7, and dished out eight less assists, 17-9, to make up the difference.

The Jacks also rebounded from a 12-for-33, 36.4 percent, shooting effort in the first half to shoot 13-for-28, 46.4 percent, in the second half, but could only manage a 1-for-11, 9.1 percent, effort from beyond the arc.

IPFW went 12-for-25, 48 percent, from the field in the first half and 11-for-24, 45.8 percent, in the second half, but finished the game 8-for-20, 40 percent, from three-point range, including a 6-for-11, 54.5 percent, effort in the second half.

DeWitt Scott led the Mastodons with a game-high 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 5-for-9 from downtown, while Demetrius Johnson pitched in with 13 points and Jaraun Burrows 11.

The Jackrabbits must now find their way through a blizzard from Fort Wayne to Rochester, Mich., where the play Oakland on Saturday in the O'Rena at 5 p.m.