Jacks Stumble in Showdown

Saturday, February 28

Vermillion, S.D.

4:00 PM

South Dakota State University

South Dakota

2/28/2015 7:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

VERMILLION, S.D. – South Dakota State's Cody Larson scored a game-high 25 points and led the Jackrabbits with 12 rebounds on Saturday at South Dakota, but the Jacks struggled offensively in an 80-64 loss in their regular season finale and Showdown Series game in the DakotaDome.

The Jacks, who already secured the No. 1 seed at next week's Summit League Championships and a share of the league's regular season title, fall to 21-9 overall and to 12-4 in league play. South Dakota improves to 16-15 overall and to 9-7 in the league, and can earn the No. 3, 4 or 5 seed at the league tournament.

“USD was just better tonight, in really every phase of the game. They played like they needed the game more than we did,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “I told the players after the game that I blame myself for not communicating better the desperation that we needed to play with in terms of how we practiced this week. It's disappointing, but I think you have to give them a lot of credit.”

The Jackrabbits opened the game on an 8-0 run, which turned into an 11-2 run, capped by a Reed Tellinghuisen 3-pointer less than four minutes into the game.

South Dakota answered with a 12-2 run later in the half, to take a 17-16 lead, the first of five lead changes to go along with two ties in the game. The final tie came at 26-all, while the final lead change came from the free throw line with 6:41 on the clock, and put the Coyotes up 27-26.

From there, the home team scored 17 more points in the half, holding the Jacks to eight, giving USD a 44-34 lead at halftime.

The Coyotes opened the second half on a 7-2 run to push its lead to 51-36 less than two minutes into the half, and held a double digit lead until the Jacks cut it to 60-51 on a Tellinghuisen 3-pointer with 9:01 left.

SDSU cut the lead to as few as six points with just over six minutes left on a Larson jumper in the lane, but the Coyotes quickly got the lead back to double figures and never looked back.

Jake Bittle joined Larson in double figures with 12 points, with Tellinghuisen adding nine points for the Jacks, who shot 34 percent for the game overall, 21 of 62 overall and 9 of 27 from 3-point range, 33 percent. .

Tre Burnette led a trio of Coyotes in double figures with 19 points, adding 13 rebounds to complete the double-double. Casey Kasperbauer finished with 17 and Brandon Bos 12 points in the win.

The Jackrabbits look to get back on the winning track on Saturday, when they take on No. 8 seed Western Illinois in the first game of The Summit League Championships in the new Denny Sanford Premier Center at 6 p.m.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series with USD 120-90-1 … USD leads the all-time series at the DakotaDome 17-10 … the teams played in front of a crowd of 4,812 fans … SDSU shares The Summit League regular season title for the second time in school history (2013), sharing it with North Dakota State … SDSU lost for the first time this season on a Saturday in 11 games … Larson's seventh double-double of the season gives him 13 for his career …. SDSU is 2-5 in games this season when Larson records a double-double … the game also marked the third 20-point game for Larson this season, the sixth in his career