Winning streak snapped in Summit League opener

Wednesday, December 28

Brookings, S.D.

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

7-9, 0-1

North Dakota State

9-5, 1-0

North Dakota State

South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

12/28/2016 9:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

South Dakota State opened Summit League play with an 80-69 loss to North Dakota State as its 34-game home winning streak came to an end Wednesday evening at Frost Arena.

SDSU (7-9, 0-1 Summit League) lead by 15 early in the second half but a charging NDSU (9-5, 1-0 Summit League) team used a cold spell to end the Jacks' streak.

Mike Daum led the way with 24 points for the Jackrabbits and added eight rebounds, second on the boards behind A.J. Hess, who grabbed 10 rebounds. Skyler Flatten and Tevin King each had 11 points for the Jacks while Michael Orris finished with six points, six rebounds and four assists.

Five Bison scored in double figures as Paul Miller paced NDSU with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Dexter Warner had a double-double as well, finishing with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Trailing 4-2 in the opening two minutes, the Jackrabbits opened up an 13-4 lead with a run of 11 unanswered as NDSU went nearly seven minutes without a point. A free throw from NDSU's Khy Kabellis ended SDSU's run at 12:10, and the Bison clawed back to within three (13-10) over the next minute with a run of their own.

SDSU stretched its lead back to seven (20-13) after a fast break layup from Andre Wallace off a Tevin King assist at 8:02, but saw the Bison hang within single digits until 2:45 when a putback layup from Daum gave SDSU a 30-19 lead.

The final 92 seconds of the first saw the Jacks end the half on a 7-0 run and went to the locker room ahead, 37-22.

South Dakota State shot 46.2 percent from the field in the opening half while NDSU hit only 30 percent of its shots and went 3 of 18 beyond the arc. The Jackrabbits held a plus-11 (25-14) lead in rebounding margin at the break and outscored NDSU in the paint, 18-10, behind Daum's game-high first half points.

The teams traded baskets through the first two minutes of the second as SDSU's lead stayed at 15 (44-29) before the Bison ran off six straight to draw back within single digits, 44-35, at 16:46.

Daum hit a 3-pointer on the other end to end the run, and after a Reed Tellinghuisen block on the defensive end, an old-fashioned 3-point play from King negated NDSU's rally and moved SDSU's lead back to 15 (50-35), after the under-16 media.

A cold streak hit the Jackrabbits soon after as the team went over nine minutes without a field goal and NDSU climbed back to take a 58-55 lead with 8:36 to play after scoring 15 unanswered.

King's free throws at 7:54 ended a scoreless stretch of over five minutes for the Jacks, but the field goal struggles didn't end until 5:10 when Flatten hit a 3-pointer to put SDSU down four, 65-61. NDSU, however, continued to hit shots to keep SDSU at bay down the stretch and the Jacks saw the nation's second longest active streak come to an end.

Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger
Opening statement ...
"Obviously their (NDSU) effort and execution in the second half was outstanding. At halftime we talked to our guys about the first two minutes being critical, obviously having the lead. I really liked how we played in the first half. We were stubborn getting the ball inside and defensively I thought we had a great energy. That first two minutes (of the second half) we fell into the trap of trying to outscore them where it was just back and fourth, scoring, scoring, scoring. I think we scored four of our first six and they were still kind of cutting into that lead.

"Credit to them, their guys did a great job adjusting in the second half and making shots. We just couldn't respond. We didn't dig deep when we needed to to get defensive stops. For our bunch, we're just better when we keep the flow offensively and scoring and kind of keeping you on your heels, our defense just seems to work better.

"It'd be very easy, and if I was a fan, I'd look at that and say 'wow, 58 points in the second half, that's embarrassing.' It certainly is but I think a part of that for our team and how its wired is that we need to keep imposing our will on the game offensively so they're taking the ball out of bounds and walking it up as opposed to them pushing it up and getting us off balance.

"Credit to Coach (David) Richman, credit to his guys. They showed great resolve. Hats off to them as that second half was a really impressive performance by them."

On second half play ...
"I feel like our energy wasn't in the second half what it was in the first half. Getting to shooters, getting the hand up, having a litle more urgency. I still believe, that again, they did a great job and they did knock down shots. We tried to mix defenses and played four or five different zones in that second half. It just seemed like whatever we played, they were patient, they imposed their will and they got a wide open three. Offensively I thought we were impatient and just kind of took the shot that was there instead of working for the one we wanted."

On commitment to zone defense ...
"Tonight we played triangle-two, two-three, three-two, one-three-one, and we did it in the first half and in the second half. For us, it's not so much what defense we necessarily play but how much effort we give and how important it is for us to get shots. I'm 100 percent confident that man-to-man defense is not suited for this team to win because teams early in the year and in practice were getting to the rim and to the post far too frequently.

"Again, I look no further than the first half. Our energy was great, our offense was great and it led us to being better on defense. They scored 22 points. I find it hard to believe that we could be so good one half and so atrocious the second half when we really played the same defenses. I really think it's a credit to them and a great job they did, but I wasn't pleased with our energy to come out to start the half."

Game Notes

Tonight was the 217th meeting all-time between the Jackrabbits and Bison. NDSU leads the all-time series, 116-101.
Prior to tonight, South Dakota State's last home loss was Jan. 25, 2014 against North Dakota State.
SDSU is now 67-4 at Frost Arena dating back to 2011-12. SDSU has had two home-winning streaks of 30 or more games in that span.
Michael Orris earned his first start of the year at point guard after a 15-point performance his last time out (12/22 at Wichita State).
Mike Daum went over 20 points for the 11th time in the last 13 games and for the 18th time in his career.

What's Next
South Dakota State welcomes South Dakota to town this Saturday, Dec. 31 for a New Year's Eve, South Dakota Corn Showdown Series matchup at 1 p.m.