Cold spell hurts Jacks at UC Irvine

Monday, November 14

Irvine, Calif.

7 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

0-2

UC Irvine

1-1

South Dakota State

UC Irvine

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

11/14/2016 10:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

IRVINE, California -- A cold spell late in the first provided separation that South Dakota State could not recover from as the men's basketball team dropped a 73-58 contest on Monday at UC Irvine.

SDSU (0-2) shot 28.8 percent from the field and hit five-of-30 from long range. UC Irvine (1-1) was 28-of-61 (45.9) from the field and made seven three-pointers.

Skyler Flatten led the team in scoring with 12 points on the night while Reed Tellinghuisen dropped 11 points with two three-pointers.

Mike Daum just missed a double-double, finishing with nine points and team-high eight rebounds. Chris Howell had nine points as well, notching every score over the final four minutes.

For the Anteaters, Jaron Martin led all scorers with 24 points and Jonathan Galloway pulled down 14 points.

SDSU found itself in an 8-0 hole in the opening two minutes of action, but an alley-oop dunk from Tellinghuisen to Daum put SDSU on the board at 17:26 and started a 10-2 run that tied it, 10-all near the 14-minute mark.

UC Irvine responded over the next four minutes to lead 17-13 at the under 12 media timeout, whistled at 10:14, and though the Anteaters pushed it to 19-13 out of the break, SDSU climbed back within one (19-18) after Tellinghuisen scored four straight for the Jacks. UCI, however, outscored SDSU, 18-5, to end the half and took a 37-24 lead into the locker rooms ahead. SDSU did not make a field goal over the final 8:48 of the first.

At the half, Tellinghuisen lead the team with eight points and five rebounds while dishing out two assists. Daum had seven points for the Jacks.

A physical start to the final frame saw six fouls being called in the opening four minutes, but UCI kept its lead at 14 (41-27) as the teams traded buckets during that span. The even play continued over the next 10 minutes as SDSU was unable to significantly cut into the deficit. UCI's lead hit 20 at 6:43 but a Cole Gentry three-pointer just seconds later moved it back to 17, 60-43.

Over the final six minutes, SDSU pushed the tempo but couldn't make up the deficit, falling in the opening game of the Sanford Pentagon Showcase.

Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger
On shooting struggles through first two games ...
"Right now it just seems like part of it is the shots we're taking. We just seem so rushed, but part of it too is that we've got a lot of guys in new spots, whether it's returning guys who have been asked to step up to be go-to guys or new guards who have come in. Obviously in back-to-back games you go 8-for-30 and 5-for-30 from there (three-point range), so one we're probably taking too many of them, but we're rushing them. For us, I think where we really need to get better is on the defensive end and that will help us flow a little more in transition and get some better looks."

On UCI's first half run ...
"That run, I mean, for us that's the whole deal we have to prevent. Our team is not great experience-wise, so we've got to show more poise and more composure. It seems like we got to a point in the game against Cal and then it happened again tonight where the other team makes a couple shots and we seemed to just hit the panic button a little bit, come down and take the first possible shot we can instead of really working to get a great shot. That's something we'll continue to work on with our team."

On tough schedule to open season ...
"Yeah we wanted to learn about our team. We knew that going to Cal and playing here that we were going to teams that had winning cultures and have been NCAA Tournament teams. Obviously, they've (UC Irvine) won 28 games here last year and even though they lost some players winning kid of re-breeds itself. We wanted to challenge ourselves and the positive is that we've got a young group, we've learned a lot about the things we need to work on everyday in practice and we need to get back to the practice floor to make those adjustments and put in the hard work. We've got a long season ahead of us. We knew this was going to be a challenging road trip so now it's time to improve on those things and get better moving forward."

What's Next
South Dakota State returns to Frost Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 16 for its home opener against Wayne State (Neb.). Tipoff against the Wildcats is set for 7 p.m.

Game Notes

At least one Jackrabbit has scored in double figures over the last 279 games dating back to Jan. 12, 2008 at IUPUI when Anthony Cordova has nine points to lead the Jacks.
SDSU has made at least one three-pointer in 306 games. The last time the Jackrabbits did not make a three-point field goal was Jan. 25, 2007 at Utah State when the team went 0-for-13.
The Jackrabbits are now 0-13 since the first year of Division I transition (2004-05) in California, and all-time have gone 0-16.
South Dakota State and UC Irvine will square off again Nov. 25 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., as part of the Sanford Pentagon Showcase.
Skyler Flatten finished one shy of his career-high in scoring.

-GoJacks.com-