South Dakota State shook off a sluggish start in its lone exhibition game of the 2016-17 season with a strong second half to take down South Dakota Mines, 85-64, at Frost Arena on Thursday night.
Reed Tellinghuisen posted a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double alongside his team-leading four assists and three blocks, and
Mike Daum led the team in scoring with 27 points, thanks in part to a 13-of-14 effort from the charity stripe as the team captains combined for 50 of SDSU's points.
Andre Wallace finished in double figures as well, finishing with 10 points off the bench.
As a team, South Dakota State shot 46.3 percent from the field and hit 9-of-22 (.409) from long range. The Jackrabbits won the rebounding battle, 48-35 and both teams had 14 assists for the night.
SD Mines had three reach the ten-point margin as well, as Brian Orr scored 11 to lead the Hardrockers while Jamall Taylor and Jake Heath added 10.
A turnover plagued opening five minutes of action put SDSU in an 8-5 deficit at the first media, but soon after a pair of Tellinghuisen sent SDSU on its first of many double-digit runs as the team took a 16-10 lead just outside the under 12 media timeout.Â
SD Mines answered briefly inside 10 minutes to go, hitting a three-pointer at 9:11 to match the score, 19-all, but just 19 seconds later Daum's layup sprung the Jacks to another double figure run, going up 29-19 just past the six-minute mark. Daum had seven of SDSU's 10 points during that three-minute span. The Hardrockers cut into that advantage slightly, but the Jacks took a 38-33 lead into the half.Â
Early in the second, SD Mines continued to chared and took a brief 46-43 lead off a eight-point burst, but the Jacks answered immediately on the other end when Tellinghuisen hit a jumper in transition, breaking off on a 15-2 spurt that ended with 13 unanswered, putting SDSU in the lead for good, up 68-48 with 10 minutes to play. Â
SDSU went cold from the field over the next three minutes of play as SD Mines made one last push, clmibing back within five, but down the stretch it was all Jackrabbits as the home team outscored SD Mines over the final seven minutes, 25-6.
What's Next
The 2016-17 regular season opens next week for South Dakota State as the Jackrabbits take a five-day road trip to the Golden State, facing off with California in the season opener on Nov. 11 before ending the swing against UC Irvine on Nov. 14.
Game Notes
- SDSU is now 13-1 in exhibitions at the Division I level
- Had tonight's contest been a regular season matchup, Reed Tellinghuisen and Mike Daum's point totals would have been career-highs.
T.J. Otzelberger
On his first game as head coach of the Jackrabbits ...
"You know what, I think there were some positives to take away, but some things that stand out to me are we passed the ball to the other team more frequently than we would like to do. The other thing is I think in the rebounding situation we like to allow the other team to get more opportunities than we would like. So those will be things that start with me and we'll get to work on them in practice because I think those are things that we need to be great at as we move forward."
On Reed Tellinghuisen's play ...
"Reed had tremendous energy for us tonight. There were certainly points in the game where we were stagnant. Reed knocked down big shots, made big plays, energy plays, got rebounds at the other end. And we were struggling at times, and he showed his leadership, his experience, his maturity and he really came up big for us."
On Mike Daum's play ...
"We need Mike out there on the floor. It's tough for him because he picks up those early fouls, and he's just a little bit more tentative on the offensive end. We need him to really be aggressive, he's tough matchup for anyone to guard one-on-one, and we need him on the floor so hopefully we can do a better job as we move forward with foul trouble."
On attendance of tonight's exhibition, which brought in 2,253 fans ...Â
"That was flattering. Credit to the fans here. This is one of the best places to play in college basketball. The homecourt, being in here tonight and feeling that energy, I can only imagine where we are going to get to. I'd like to take the time to thank all of the fans that did take the time to come out tonight. That support is huge to have 2,253 here for an exhibition. That says a lot about the integrity and commitment of our fan base and we are going to work hard to clean some of this stuff up and put a product on the floor they can be really proud of."
On next week's road trip to California ...
"We wanted to go on the road early on and challenge ourselves and see where we are at. Cal, they were picked fourth in the PAC 12, a team that's an unbelievable rebounding team, they're huge, they're physical, and they return arguably the best big man in college basketball. So we have our work cut out for us there. And to go to Irvine, a team that won 28 games last year, and take them on the road right away, we're going to learn a lot about ourselves. And I think that's the important part of a trip like that, that we learn about our team and we want to be challenged. We think we have a group that wants to be challenged. Exciting opportunities for us."
-GoJacks.com-
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