Jacks tame Tigers in exhibition finale

Tuesday, November 4

Frost Arena

7:00 PM

South Dakota State University

Dakota Wesleyan

11/4/2014 11:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State never pulled away from Dakota Wesleyan in Tuesday's exhibition finale, but led for the vast majority of the game, which ended with a 79-72 Jackrabbit victory at Frost Arena.

“I think it was good for us to play in a close game, it was nice to see our kids make some big plays when we needed to,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “When you look at the stats, everything is in our favor; we out-rebounded them by 13, we held them to 38 percent shooting, 31 from three, it feels like they made a lot of threes, and they did, but they take so many of them. Our problem is that we were just terrible offensively. We were tight and stiff and missed a ton of easy shots.”

SDSU finished the game shooting 40.6 percent from the floor as a team on 28 of 69 shooting, including a 4 for 15 mark from 3-point range, 26.7 percent. DWU went 22 for 58 from the floor overall, and 12 for 38 from long range.

Deondre Parks led the fought off a rough night from the field to finish with 20 points to lead the Jackrabbits, nine of which game from the free throw line. Freshman Reed Tellinghuisen scored 14 points in the first half and finished with 19 in going 8 of 13 overall and made all three shots from deep. Both Parks and Tellinghuisen added seven rebounds.

Cody Larson scored 16 points in the win and added a team-high eight rebounds, while Jake Bittle scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Jalen Voss led the visitors with 20 points and tied with teammate Luke Bamberg with a game-high nine rebounds.

The Jacks shook off an 0 for 5 start from the floor to take a 19-14 lead midway through the first half, only to see the Tigers respond with a 10-0 run to take a 24-19 lead with 6:41 left in the first half.

SDSU answered with a 17-3 run, which included a 13-0 run, capped by a pair of 3-pointers from Tellinghuisen, and took a 40-34 lead into halftime.

Up by as many as 10 points in the second half, DWU cut the lead to 1 at 68-67 with 1:25 left in the game, but Parks scored the next five points to secure the Jackrabbit win.

The exhibition season over, the Jackrabbits open the season on Friday, Nov. 14, at Buffalo at 7 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. CT.