Dauminating Performance Leads Jacks Past ORU

Saturday, March 5

Sioux Falls, S.D.

8:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

No. 7 Seed Oral Roberts

3/6/2016 1:10:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: SDSU Sports Info

SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota State redshirt freshman Mike Daum scored a career-high 26 points, setting the SDSU freshman scoring record in the process, as the Jackrabbits overcame a 13 point second half deficit to secure a 73-70 win over Oral Roberts in front of a Summit League Championships record 10,306 fans at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

The second-seeded Jackrabbits improve to 24-7 and advance to play either No. 3 seed Omaha or No. 6 seed Denver, while the seventh-seeded Golden Eagles end their season with a 14-17 record.

"Honestly, I feel terrible for Oral Roberts because they played great. I want to say that we didn't play well, but that was Oral Roberts making us not play well. I thought they had a great game plan and were way more energetic," SDSU head coach Scott Nagy said. "Coming down to the last few minutes our kids started to play, and I'm proud them for not quitting because, let's face it, for most of that game it did not look very good, we didn't have the energy for whatever reason. But we did when we needed it, and we made some pretty good adjustments late, and our kids had a good game plan and we were finally rebounding the ball in the last seven or eight minutes."

The Jackrabbits won the tip and scored, but the Golden Eagles used an early 10-0 run to take a 16-6 lead five minutes into the contest. Jake Bittle snapped the run, but ORU scored the next five points to extend its lead to 23-8 with 13 minutes on the first half clock.

SDSU quickly got those five points back to get the lead back to 10 points at 23-13, drawing a timeout from the Oral Roberts bench with just under 12 minutes left in the half, and then extended the run to 8-0 to cut the lead to 23-16.

The Jacks added a 6-0 run later in the half to cut the lead to 29-25 with just over five minutes left in the first half, but the Golden Eagles pushed the lead back to 11 points late, before Ian Theisen hit a 3-pointer with one second left to cut the lead to 38-30 at halftime.

The Golden Eagles got that three points right back to start the second half to get the lead back to double figures, and led by 13 points at 58-45 midway through the second half, when the Jacks started their comeback, which started with a 6-0 run that cut the ORU lead to 58-51 on a Daum and-1 with 9:28 left.

That lead would grow back to nine points, but the Jacks kept chipping away, and finally made it a one possession game at 66-63 with 3:16 left, only to see the Golden Eagles get it right back to seven points a minute later, but a pair of Bittle free throws and a George Marshall hit a 3-pointer cut it 70-68 with 1:24 on the clock.

The Jackrabbits got a stop, then a Marshall free throw with 45 seconds left to cut the lead to 70-69, and even though he missed the second, Daum collected the rebound and got fouled. He made both charity tosses to give SDSU its first lead since early in the second half, and the Jacks would not give it up the rest of the way, getting two stops and free throws from both Deondre Parks and Reed Tellinghuisen to secure the win.

Daum's career-high 26 points led all players in the game, and he also added a game-high eight rebounds. Keaton Moffitt added nine points, while both Tellinghuisen and Theisen scored eight for the Jackrabbits.

ORU's Obi Emegano led four Golden Eagles in double figures with 15 points. Kris Martin added 13 points, Javan White 12 and Albert Owens 11 points in the loss.

The Jackrabbits advance to play the winner of Sunday's quarterfinal game on Monday at 8:30 p.m.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series 9-8, with a 2-0 advantage in Summit League Tournament play and a 1-0 record in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, where a Summit League Tournament all-time session record 10,306 fans turned out to watch the game ... SDSU improves to 5-3 this season when trailing at halftime and to 17-0 when shooting more or the same amount of free throws than its opponent ... only one Jackrabbit scored in double figures for the first time this season ... the last No. 7 upset over a No. 2 upset in The Summit League Championships came when SDSU upset Oral Roberts on March 7, 2009 ... Daum now owns the SDSU freshman scoring record with 469 points, breaking the mark of Matt Cadwell (453 points in 2006) ... Daum scored in double figures in each of the last 18 games ... Daum scored at least 20 points for the third straight game and for the seventh time this season