Jacks grind out 66-56 win over SUU

Saturday, February 4

Frost Arena

7:30 PM

South Dakota State University

Southern Utah

2/5/2012 12:11:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State battled through 12 ties and 12 lead changes on Saturday against Southern Utah, but a 31 point night by Nate Wolters and a six-point trip down the floor paved the way for a 66-56 win in the 40th Annual Pork Classic.

Trailing 38-36 after a Damon Heuir three-pointer with 12:31 to play, Griffan Callahan got fouled after a made three-point basket to put the Jacks up 39-38 with 12:05 on the clock. That gave the Jacks the ball with a chance to add to the lead, which Wolters did when he made a layup, and one, to put SDSU on top 42-38 with 11:51 left in the game.

The visiting Thunderbirds, who fall to an even 12-12 on the season overall and 7-7 in The Summit League, would get as close as two points at 45-43 with just over eight minutes left to play, but would never tie or regain the lead for the rest of the night.

"These are the kind of games that are like tournament games that you have to grind out at half court," head coach Scott Nagy said after the win, which gives the Jacks a 19-6 overall record and an 11-2 mark in league play. "They did the right thing by playing the way that they did. They turned it into a half court game and they're much more physical than us and they showed that by beating us up on the glass, which I'm not happy about."

Not happy because the Thunderbirds won the rebounding battle 33-21, including a 12-6 edge on the offensive glass, which led to 12 second chance points from the visitors, compared to six by the Jackrabbits.

The Jacks made up for that margin by finishing with a 16-5 advantage in bench points, nine of which came from Marcus Heemstra, who finished with a career-high nine points in 21 minutes. Chad White scored the Jacks other seven points off the bench. Along with Wolters' 31, only Callahan joined him in double figures with 10 points.

Ray Jones, Jr. scored 18 points to lead the T-birds. Ramell Taylor added 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Heuir and Matt Massey both finished with eight points in the loss.

Prior to the six-point trip down the floor, neither team led by more than three points in the game, as the first half alone featured 10 ties and four lead changes before the Jacks took a 28-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The first eight minutes of the second half looked exactly like the first half, with two more ties and eight more lead changes before the Jacks took control of the game on the six-point trip down the floor.

Still perfect at home this season at 10-0, the Jackrabbits return to the road next week with games at South Dakota on Thursday and at UMKC on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.

NOTES: The Jackrabbits improve to 30-10 all-time in the Pork Classic ... SDSU improves to 8-2 all-time against Southern Utah, with wins in each of the last seven meetings ... SDSU also improves to 5-0 against SUU at Frost Arena and 2-0 in Pork Classic games ... the Jacks and T-birds played in front of an announced crowd of 3,382 ... SDSU tied a Pork Classic record for fewest field goal attempts with 43 ... SUU tied the Pork Classic record for most fouls with 27 ... SDSU improves to 10-0 at home this season and runs its home winning streak to 12 at Frost Arena ... SDSU 15-1 when leading at the half and 17-1 when making more three-pointers than its opponents ... the Jacks scored a home game season-low 28 points in the first half ... Wolters moved from 12th to ninth on the all-time scoring list at SDSU with 1,418 points, six point away from passing former teammate Kai Williams (1,423 points from 2006-10) for eighth on the all-time list ... Wolters scored at least 30 points for the fourth time this season and the eighth time in his career ... Callahan moved from seventh to sixth on the all-time three-point charts with 148 in his career, seven shy of cracking the top-five