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 return home to host South Dakota and UMKC
1/11/2012 4:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Off to its best start in Summit League play, South Dakota State returns home this week to try and improve on its 5-1 league record with games against South Dakota on Thursday at 7 p.m., followed by a visit from UMKC on Saturday in the 20th Annual Lamb Bonanza at 7:30 p.m.
Winners of nine of their last 11 games, the Jackrabbits enter the week after dropping their first league game of the season on Saturday, when Oral Roberts downed the Jacks 97-75 in Tulsa, Okla.
SDSU hung with preseason favorite Oral Roberts well into the second half of Saturday's showdown for Summit League supremacy, but the host Golden Eagles ran away in the second half.
The loss snaps a four game winning streak overall and a five game winning streak in Summit League play, as the Jackrabbits fall to 13-5 overall and 5-1 in league play. The Golden Eagles improve to 14-4 overall and remain perfect in league play at 6-0.
Dominique Morrison led the Golden Eagles with 38 points on 11-for-15 shooting, which includes a 5-for-8 night from three-point range. Morrison also went 11-for-11 from the free throw line and tied for game-high with seven rebounds. Steven Roundtree added 17 points and seven boards for the home team off the bench, while Michael Craion and Warren Niles both scored 15 points.
Nate Wolters led five Jackrabbits in double figures with 22 points, and added six assists. Tony Fiegen scored 11 points, while Jordan Dykstra, Griffan Callahan and Chad White all finished with 10 points.
The Jackrabbits lead by as many as eight points early, but the Golden Eagles ended the first half on a 15-6 run that put them up 44-37 at the half.
SDSU got to within two points on three occasions early in the second half, before ORU put the game away with a 21-4 run midway through the half that ended with the Golden Eagles up 84-64 with five minutes to play.
SDSU overcame a one-point halftime deficit and fought through 11 lead changes and eight ties to hang on for a 75-68 win at Southern Utah on Thursday to remain undefeated in league play at 5-0 and set up the showdown at Oral Roberts.
Wolters finished a game-high 28 points, adding six assists and four each in rebounds and steals. White finished with 13 points off the bench, as the Jackrabbit bench outscored the T-Bird bench 18-8, despite playing just three players off the bench.
Brayden Carlson and Griffan Callahan both added 10 points , with Callahan leading the way with seven rebounds.
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. That select list includes Saturday's game at Western Illinois. 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.
JACKS RECEIVING VOTES IN MID-MAJOR TOP-25 - After cracking the collegeinsider.com Mid Major Top-25 for the first time this season at No. 25 on Dec. 19. The Jacks moved up to No. 23 in the poll released on Dec. 26, and moved up to No. 21 in the poll released on Jan. 2, but fell out of the poll to the top team receiving votes in the most recent poll released on Jan. 9.
WOLTERS CLIMBS THE 1,000-POINT CLUB LADDER - Junior Nate Wolters became the 42nd member of the SDSU 1,000-Point Club in the Jacks win over Sam Houston State on Nov. 22, and instantly began the climb up the all time list. Wolters enters tonight's game with 1,273 career points, good for 20th all-time at SDSU and 13 points shy of moving all the way up to 14th on the list.
WOLTERS CHASES SCORING RECORD - Nate Wolters scored 907 points in his first two years as a Jackrabbit, including the SDSU sophomore record with 604 points. Double that two-year point total, and it does not appear that he entered his junior season on pace to break the all-time SDSU scoring record of 1,931 points, but if he averages 512 points per season over his last two years, the record, set by Mark Tetzlaff from 1981-85, would indeed fall.
NAGY NOTCHES 300th CAREER WIN - Already the most prolific coach in SDSU history, head coach Scott Nagy entered the 2011-12 season with 289 wins, just 11 shy of reaching the 300-win milestone, which he reached in the Jackrabbits 94-58 win over IPFW on Dec. 28.
NAGY TEAMS WITH SAMARITANS FEET - Head coach Scott Nagy teamed up with Samaritan's Feet in each of the last three seasons to raise money and shoes for children around the world, including Haiti, and the cause really hits home for Nagy and his family, especially after a major earthquake shook the country on Jan. 12, 2010.
"My wife Jamie and I adopted our daughter Naika from Haiti, so we've seen first-hand the need for shoes there," Nagy said.
Nagy raised over $6,000 for the relief efforts in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and then took it to another level last season, when the entire Jackrabbit coaching staff coached in their bare feet against IPFW on Jan. 22, to raise money for shoes and shelters in Zimbabwe.
Nagy makes it four years in a row this season when he coaches barefoot on Saturday, when the Jacks host UMKC in Frost Arena.
Jackrabbit fans can play their part again in 2012 by logging onto Go.Jacks.com and clicking on the banner at the top of the page to make a difference in a child's life.
THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
South Dakota Coyotes (6-9, 1-5 Summit, 3-6 Away) - After starting The Summit League season with five straight losses, the Coyotes won their first-ever Summit League game on Saturday, with a 76-57 win at UMKC. Two of the Coyotes' losses this season came in overtime, including a 90-80 home loss to Canisius and an 81-75 loss at home to Southern Utah.
Charlie Westbrook leads a trio of Coyotes averaging in double figure points this season with 17.5 points per game. Louie Krogman adds 14.9 points and a team-high 3.5 assists per game. Trevor Gruis averages 10.7 points per game and shares the team lead of 5.5 rebounds peg game with Ricardo Andreotti, who scores 3.3 points per game.
The Series vs. South Dakota - The Jackrabbits lead the all-time series 115-87-1, which includes a 64-17-1 record at home and a 22-9 record at Frost Arena.
The Last Meeting: March 5, 2004, Omaha, Neb. - Andy Moeller led all players with 26 points in the North Central Conference Wells Fargo Finals from Sapp Fieldhouse in Omaha, Neb., but it all went for naught in a 73-69 loss to South Dakota.
The Jackrabbits, who trailed 44-30 at the half, got back to within two points on a Joe Green three-pointer with 1:13 left in the game, but they Coyotes answered on their next possession, and the Jacks would get no closer the rest of the game.
Derrick Schantz and Matt Jones scored 12 points in the loss, which dropped the Jackrabbits to 26-6 on the season, with Jones adding a game-high 10 rebounds to complete the double-double. Marquise Richardson finished with 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers for the Jacks.
Tommie King led the Coyotes, who improve to 21-8, with 20 points. Josh Mueller and Doug Hanson both scored 15 and Derek Paben 11 points in the win.
The Jacks took the early lead and led by as many as six points at 10-4 with less than four minutes off the clock, but the Coyotes would fight back to tie the game at 16 before going on a 16-4 run that put the underdogs up for good.
UMKC Kangaroos (7-11, 1-5 Summit, 2-7 Away) - Picked to finish seventh in The Summit League's preseason poll, the Kangaroos, who play at North Dakota State on Thursday, opened league play with a win at IPFW, but fell in their next five league games entering play this week. The five game league skid includes an overtime loss at IUPUI and a home loss to South Dakota last week.
Reggie Chamberlain leads the Kangaroo offense with 17.3 points per game and ranks second on the team with 46 assists. Trinity Hall adds 11.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Thomas Staton scores 7.4 points per game, but leads the team with 5.0 rebounds per game, with 36 steals and with 18 blocked shots.
The Series vs. UMKC - The Jackrabbits lead the all-time series 6-5, after splitting the season series last season, when each team won on the other team's home floor.
The Last Meeting: Jan. 27, 2011, Frost Arena - SDSU led by 10 points with 14 minutes and 31 seconds left to play against UMKC, but the Jackrabbits went just 4-for-16 from the floor the rest of the way, and the Kangaroos capitalized to outscore the Jacks 31-16 to secure the 63-58 win.
Nate Wolters led all players with 19 points and added eight rebounds and eight assists. Jordan Dykstra scored the Jacks first seven points in the game and finished with 11 points off the bench.
The UMKC bench did most of the damage in the game, outscoring the SDSU bench 30-14, 17 of which came from Bakari Lewis, who led the 'Roos with 17 points. Spencer Johnson added 15 points and 14 rebounds, tying the UMKC record for career rebounds with 639 in the process. Maxx Rockmann also reached double figures with 10 points off the bench.
After a slow start by both teams, the Jackrabbits eventually built a nine point first half lead, but they could never pull any farther away before taking a 33-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Just like the first half, both team started the second half slowly, but the Jacks did lead by 10 points on three occasions before the Jacks went cold and the 'Roos made their run.
NEXT UP FOR THE JACKRABBITS - The Jackrabbits hit the road for one game next week, when they head north to take on North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D. The Jacks and Bison tipoff from Bison Sports Arena at 7 p.m., in a game that can be seen live on Midco Sports Net.
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