Jackrabbit men win big over North Dakota

Saturday, December 10

Frost Arena

7:30 PM

South Dakota State University

North Dakota

12/10/2011 11:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State opened Saturday's game with North Dakota on a 15-0 run and never looked back in a convincing 92-54 win in front of 4,104 fans at Frost Arena.

Six Jackrabbits scored in double figures in the first meeting between the former conference foes since March 2, 2004, which boosts the Jacks record to 8-3 on the season. North Dakota falls to 4-5 with the loss.

"This is probably the probably the first game that we were good both defensively and offensively at the same time," head coach Scott Nagy said after the game. "We went up by 15 early, and I knew they'd work their way back into the game, but we did a good job pulling away and being up 18 at the half."

North Dakota cut the Jacks early 15-point lead to as few as four points, but SDSU strung together a run of 15-4 to regain its advantage before taking a 39-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Jacks continued to build on the lead in the second half, going up as many as 41 points before the game ended with the final 38-point margin, which ties the highest margin of victory by either team in the 183 game series that dates back to Feb. 19, 1917.

Nate Wolters led the six Jackrabbits in double figures with 16 points. Tony Fiegen added 13 and Taévaunn Prince 12 points in just 16 minutes on the floor. Brayden Carlson and Chad White both finished with 11 points, which ties a career-high for Carlson. Jordan Dykstra scored 10 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, as the Jacks dominated on the boards with a 45-21 advantage.

In addition to the rebounding advantage, SDSU shot a season-high 57 percent from the floor on 33-of-58 shooting and held North Dakota to 36 percent from the field on 18-of-50 shooting, a season low for the Jackrabbit defense.

The same two teams meet again on Thursday in Grand Forks, N.D., but not before the Jackrabbits host Dakota State on Monday in Frost Arena at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Saturday's win marks the fourth in a row over North Dakota for SDSU ... North Dakota leads the all-time series 105-78 ... the Jackrabbits previous 38-point margin of victory came in an86-48 win in Brookings on Jan. 18, 1957 ... North Dakota's largest margin of victory in the series came in an 89-52 win over SDSU in Grand Forks on March 2, 1990, a margin of 37 points ... Wolters finished the game with 1,129 points in his career which moves him past Guy Mackner (1,114 points from 1967-69) and Randy Suarez (1,114 points from 1987-89) for 23rd on the SDSU all-time scoring list ... Wolters three assists in the game leaves him four shy of moving up to seventh on the SDSU career assists list with 344