Jacks hold off Vandals for 33rd straight home win

Saturday, December 10

Brookings, S.D.

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

5-7

Idaho

4-5

Idaho

South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

12/10/2016 9:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

South Dakota State men's basketball took a double digit lead through the middle of the second half and hung on late in a 80-77 win over Idaho Saturday evening at Frost Arena.

SDSU (5-7) won its 33rd consecutive home game and evened the season series with Idaho (4-5), who won the matchup in Moscow earlier this year.

The Jacks used a stellar 25 of 26 effort from the charity stripe as a team and shot 47.9 from the field in the contest. Additionally, the team hit nine of 25 from long range.

Mike Daum finished with a career-high 33 points, hitting 13 of 13 free throws for career highs in free throws made and free throw percentage as well. Daum added eight rebounds to just miss a double-double.

A.J. Hess added 18 points with four 3-pointers and a 6 of 6 effort from the charity stripe while Tevin King and Andre Wallace each added eight points.

Reed Tellinghuisen dished out a team-high five assists.

For Idaho, Victor Sanders (17 points), Nate Sherwood (14 points) and Trevon Allen (11 points) all finished in double figures.

Trailing early, SDSU saw a 13-4 deficit open up just past the 15-minute mark before Reed Tellinghuisen and Andre Wallace drained consecutive 3-pointers to draw SDSU back within two (13-10) less than a minute later. Those jumpers were part of a 22-6 run for SDSU that saw SDSU take a 26-19 lead with 8:06 remaining in the half. That stretch ended with nine straight for the Jacks as Idaho was held without a field goal for six minutes.

An A.J. Hess 3-pointer at 4:45 ended a stretch of nearly five minutes without an SDSU field goal to give the Jacks a 33-25 lead, but the Jacks hit 10 of 10 free throws during that span to minimize the damage from the cold streak.

Less than a minute later, another set of Daum free throws pushed the Jacks' lead to 10 (35-25) with 4:21 before the half, but the Vandals charged down the stretch and used a 7-0 run inside the final 90 seconds to cut into the Jacks' lead (37-35), but an alley-oop on its final possession sent SDSU into the locker room ahead, 39-35.

South Dakota State stretched its lead back to 15 (51-36) in the opening four minutes of the second half thanks to a 12-0 run as Idaho was held scoreless for more than four minutes as the game moved inside the 16-minute mark.

Idaho answered with eight straight of their own to cut the lead to 51-44 to force an SDSU timeout at 13:41, and SDSU stopped the run with a Chris Howell jumper out of the reset. The Vandals went cold once again over the next three minutes as SDSU pushed its margin back to double digits, 55-44.

A pesky Vandal squad, however, did not go away and continued to chip until clawing within three (74-71) with 1:33 to play. Daum sunk a pair of free throws with 59 seconds on the clock, but an old-fashioned 3-point play on the opposite end moved Idaho back within two, 76-74, with 41.5 seconds play.

A free throw battled ensued, and though Idaho came within one (78-77) with three free throws at the 20 second mark, the Jacks hung on for the win as Daum's dunk on the other end sealed it.

Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger
On tonight's win ...
"Our energy to start the game and our energy the last seven or eight minutes was far too complacent. We're still learning and we're still a work in progress, but if winning is important to us, we have to come out with great energy and we have to finish with great energy and we didn't accomplish either of those things tonight."

Running the play better as a team ...
"I think our guys have a little more understanding of what we're looking for, at least in their roles and how they can help out team be successful. Overall we've been happy since we've changed the lineups; we've won four of the last five. We're ready and other guys need to stay ready too because this is not going to be seven or eight guys, there's going to be other opportunities out there, so they need to be ready too."

On differences from the first game ...
"We did a great job through the middle portion of our game. Our activity level was so much higher and people will come and say you can't play zone when people can make 3s, but we played man-to-man the whole time (in the previous meeting) and they made 14 threes on fewer attempts. Our energy was phenomenal for a long period of time and then we let up and probably hit five in the last seven or eight minutes and that was more due to us not having the energy and the will to finish off the game."

On extending home-winning streak ...
"It's a very special home court and we're so thankful to our fans. Its been a busy weekend with basketball last night and tomorrow and a football game earlier today. We appreciate the fans that come out; it makes us play special. I just hope our fans will stick with us; keep coming out, keep believing because we need your energy. We're going to get better and we appreciate it."

Game Notes

South Dakota State extended its home-winning streak to 33 games, the nation's second longest active streak. Kansas is first nationally with 47 consecutive home wins (entering tonight's game).
SDSU and Idaho are now tied, 4-4, in the all-time series between the teams.
Mike Daum reached double figures for the 41st time in his career (46 total games). He has now scored 20 or more points seven times this season.
Mike Daum is now the active scoring leader for the Jackrabbits with 768 career points. Reed Tellinghuisen is second with 746 career points.
The Jackrabbits started a perfect 21-of-21 from the charity stripe and finished 25 of 26 on free throws. The last time SDSU finished above 90 percent on free throws was March 18, 2016 against Maryland when the team went 16 of 17.
Mike Daum's 13 free throws is the second most in program history for a game and tied the field goal percentage (1.000) school record. The effort was also a career-high for SDSU.

What's Next
South Dakota State is idle for the week until Saturday, Dec. 17 when Murray State comes to town for the final non-conference home game of the season. Tipoff from Frost is set for 4 p.m.