Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Mayville State (Exhibition) on October 29, 2025 at 8:30 p.m.
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8:30 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Mayville State (Exhibition)
South Dakota State University Athletics
Jacks face road tests at Minnesota and Georgia
11/13/2011 1:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball
After opening the season at home with an 82-76 win over Western Michigan on Saturday, South Dakota State hits the road for its next eight games before returning to the friendly environs of Frost Arena on Dec. 6.
The eight-game road test begins on Monday at Minnesota, where the Jackrabbits and Golden Gophers meet for the 14th time overall and the seventh time in as many seasons at Williams Arena at 7 p.m. A trip to Athens, Ga., follows on Wednesday, when the Jackrabbits meet the Georgia Bulldogs for the first-ever meeting between the two teams. The Jackrabbits and Bulldogs square off at Stegman Coliseum on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
While the vast majority of teams start the 2011-12 basketball season on Friday, including the Jackrabbits next two opponents, the South Dakota State season started on Saturday, when the Jackrabbits defeated Western Michigan 82-76 in both team's opener at Frost Arena, thanks to career-days from Nate Wolters and Tony Fiegen.
Wolters led the charge and tied for game-high honors with 32 points and then tied a career-high with 11 assists with no turnovers. Fiegen scored 14 of his career-high 16 points.
Western Michigan's Matt Stainbrook went 14-for-16 from the floor to lead the 0-1 Broncos with 32 points in the loss. Demetrius finished with 16 points in the loss, while Mike Douglas added 14 points.
Only Wolters and Fiegen scored in double figures for the Jackrabbits, who also got nine points from Brayden Carlson in his first career start and seven points from both Griffan Callahan and the aforementioned Horstman. Callahan also led the Jacks with six rebounds.
Saturday's game saw a total of 12 lead changes and eight tie scores, with five lead changes four ties in the first half before the Broncos took a 36-35 lead into the locker room. WMU almost took a four point lead to the break, but Wolters hit a deep three at the first half buzzer to cut the lead to one point.
The lead changed hands seven more times in the first 10 minutes of the first half, but a three-pointers by Wolters and Carlson in consecutive trips down the floor gave the Jacks a 58-55 lead with 10:38 left to play that they would never relinquish.
The Jacks would lead by as many as eight points in the second half and did not let the Broncos get any closer than two points down the stretch.
RABBITS ON THE RADIO - Originated from the AM 570 WNAX studios in Yankton, S.D., SDSU men's basketball games can be heard on a total of five stations throughout South Dakota on the Jackrabbit Sports Network.
• 570 AM - WNAX - Yankton• 910 AM - KJJQ "The Ranch" - Brookings
• 1060 AM - KGFX - Pierre
• 950 AM KWAT or 96.9 FM KDLO - Watertown
• 99.5 FM - KRKI - Rapid City
Pierre, S.D., native Tyler Merriam takes over the play-by-play duties in 2011-12, replacing six-time winner of the South Dakota Associated Press Sportscaster of the Year and 1998 National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year, Steve Imming, who retired in the summer of 2011.
THE JACKRABBIT EXTRA ON GoJacks.com - Subscribers to the Jackrabbit Extra on GoJacks.com watch every Jackrabbit home game and select road games streaming live on the internet. In addition, subscribers can listen to every game, home and on the road, streaming live on the internet.
To learn more about the Jackrabbit Extra, or to subscribe, log onto GoJacks.com and click on "SIGN UP NOW"
THE JACKRABBIT INSIDER ON FOX - Fans of South Dakota State Athletics can get a weekly behind-the-scenes look at all 21 Jackrabbit varsity sports teams by tuning into "The Jackrabbit Insider."
Hosted by Tyler Merriam, the show airs on Sundays on KTTW FOX 17 at 10:30 p.m., and can also be seen on Fox Sports North at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays.
WOLTERS CLOSES IN ON 1,000-POINT MILESTONE - Junior Nate Wolters set the sophomore scoring record last season with 604 points. Add that to his 303 points as a freshman, and the standout point guard needed just 97 points to become the 42nd member of the SDSU 1,000-Point Club. His 32 points vs. Western Michigan in the season-opening win gives him 939 for his career and leaves him 61 shy of joining the club.
WOLTERS CHASES SCORING RECORD - Nate Wolters scored 303 points as a freshman, and then set the SDSU sophomore scoring record with 6-4 points. Double his two-year point total of 907 points, and it does not appear that he enters his junior season on pace to break the all-time SDSU scoring record of 1,931 points, but if he can average 512 points per season over his last two years, the record, set by Mark Tetzlaff from 1981-85, would indeed fall.
WOLTERS DRAWS NATIONAL ATTENTION - Following a sophomore season that saw Nate Wolters garner numerous postseason awards after shattering the SDSU sophomore scoring record with 604 points, and after leading the Jackrabbits with 19.5 points per game and the league with 6.1 assists per game, a number of different media outlets took notice:
– College
Basketball's Top 25 Players you might not know, but should
– CBSsports.com
25th ranked Point Guard
– CBSsports.com
Summit Pre-Season Player of the Year
– Rivals.com
All-Summit First Team, Ballin' is a Habit Mid Major Second Team
NAGY NEARS MILESTONE WIN - Already the most prolific coach in SDSU history, Jackrabbit head coach Scott Nagy entered the 2011-12 season with 289 wins, just 11 shy of reaching the 300-win milestone. A win in the Jacks opener leaves Nagy 10 wins shy of the milestone.
THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
Minnesota Golden Gophers (1-0, 1-0 Home) - Minnesota, who plays nine of its first 12 games of the season at home, went 2-0 in the exhibition season with home wins over Division II foes Bemidji State and Augustana before opening the regular season on Friday, Nov. 11, with a 70-58 win over Bucknell at Williams Arena.
Trevor Mbakwe led the Gophers in the season-opening win with a game-high 17 points, including a 9-for-13 night at the free throw line. He also added a team-high 10 rebounds to complete the double-double. Austin Hollins finished with 13 points in the win, as the Gophers led by just two at 33-31 at halftime, but outscored Bucknell 37-27 in the second half to secure the win.
The Series vs. Minnesota - The Golden Gophers lead the all-time series 13-0, including a 59-21 win in the first meeting on Dec. 6, 1930, and wins in each of the last six seasons.
The Last Meeting: at Minnesota, 12/23/10 - South Dakota State came to Minnesota looking for its second win against a Big Ten team of the season, and even though they gave the No. 16/17 ranked Golden Gophers all they could handle, the Jackrabbits fell to Minnesota by the score of 85-73.
Clint Sargent led the Jackrabbits with 23 points, two shy of his career-high of 25, which he set on Dec. 10, 2008 in the same arena. Nate Wolters added 16 points and a career-high 11 assists for his first-career double-double, but the Gophers held him to only two points in the second half. Jordan Dykstra rounded out the Jacks double figure scorers with 12 points in the loss.
Devoe Joseph and Colton Iverson led Minnesota with 15 points each. Rodney Williams added 13 points in the win.
Down 8-7 early, Jacks went on a 10-0 run to take a 17-8 lead with 13:34 left in the first half, but the Gophers started to chip away at the lead before Joseph got the Gophers back on top with a three-pointer at the 8:14 mark that put Minnesota up 22-21, a lead that would increase to 34-29 at the half.
The Gophers scored five quick points to push the lead to 10 with less than a minute gone off the second half clock, but the Jackrabbits would not go away. SDSU went on an 8-0 run to get within two points and stayed close until a Sargent three pointer with 8:06 left to play gave the Jacks a 60-59 lead.
Minnesota scored on its next possession to go back on top, where they stayed until Sargent tied the game at 63-all on a three-pointer. The teams traded free throws to get to 64-64, but Minnesota responded with a 9-0 run to take a 73-64 lead before Sargent ended the run with a jumper that cut the lead to 73-66 with just over three minutes to play, but the Jacks would get no closer than seven points for the rest of the game.Georgia Bulldogs (1-0, 1-0 Home) - Georgia, who hosts Bowling Green on Sunday before hosting the Jackrabbits on Wednesday, won its lone exhibition game, 74-50 over Morehouse, and then opened the season on Friday, Nov. 11, at home with a 62-49 win over Wofford. The Bulldogs went deep into the bench in the season-opening win, playing a total of 13 players in the game, three of which scored in double figures. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Bulldogs with 15 points in the win. Dustin Ware scored 14 and Gerald Robinson 11 points. Donte' Williams scored just three points, but pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds and blocked a game-high three shots in 30 minutes.
Georgia struggled as a team from the floor, shooting just 34 percent in the game, but the defense made up for it, by holding the Wofford offense to just 34.6 percent from the floor.
The Series vs. Georgia - First Meeting
NEXT UP FOR THE JACKRABBITS - The Jackrabbits return to the state of Georgia next week for three games at the CBE Classic in Macon, Ga., starting with Niagara on Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed Sam Houston State on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET, before wrapping up the trip with a 7 p.m. ET game against tournament host Mercer on Wednesday.
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