Cardiac Jacks Survive and Advance... Again

Monday, March 7

Sioux Falls, S.D.

8:30 PM

South Dakota State University

25-7

No. 6 Seed Denver

16-15

Denver

South Dakota State

3/8/2016 12:22:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: SDSU Sports Info

SIOUX FALLS – For the second straight game, South Dakota State erased a seemingly insurmountable deficit late in the game and found a way to win. It happened in a 73-70 Summit League Championships quarterfinal win over Oral Roberts on Saturday, and again on Monday in the semifinals, this time a 54-53 win over Denver.

Trailing 49-36 with just over five minutes left in the game, the Jackrabbits ended the game with a 16-4 run, with the last point coming on a Jake Bittle free throw with two seconds left in the game, but the drama didn't end there. An SDSU foul send Denver to the free throw line for a 1 and 1 with 1.2 seconds left, but the shot hit the front of the rim and bounced into the hands of Deondre Parks, which ended the game.

"Strange finish, obviously, very very unusual finish to the game. I'm proud of our kids, I think winning the Oral Roberts game in the fashion we did really gave us confidence to come back in this basketball game," head coach Scott Nagy said. "We know that offensively we were so bad that it's unbelievable that could win that basketball game, but defensively we were great the first half and great the last maybe eight minutes when we needed it."

SDSU improves to 25-7 with the win, and advances to The Summit League finals on Tuesday, where they face No. 5 seed North Dakota State in a rematch of last year's title game.

Up 30-22 at halftime, Denver came out hot in the second half, quickly erasing the SDSU lead with an 18-0 run, which gave the Pioneers a 40-30 lead nearly seven minutes in the half.

SDSU snapped the run with a pair of Mike Daum free throws with 13:09 on the clock, the first points of the half for the Jackrabbits, but the run would continue grow up to 24-4 before SDSU scored its first field goal of the second half, a Parks layup with 8:17 remaining that cut the Denver lead to 46-36.

Still down 10 with 4:18 on the clock, Denver fouled Parks on a 3-point shot, which found its mark, sending him to the foul line, where he converted the old fashioned 4-point play to cut the lead to 49-43, part of a 7-0 run that became a game-deciding 16-4 run by the Jackrabbits.

Parks finished with 14 points, one fewer than Daum's 15 to lead the Jackrabbits, who shot just 27 percent in the second half on 6 of 22 shooting and 33 percent for the game overall, 15 of 45.

Jake Pemberton led a trio of Pioneers in double figures with a game-high 16 points. C. J. Bobbitt added 13 and Marcus Byrd 10 points in the loss, which ends Denver's season with a 16-15 record.

The Jackrabbits season continues on Tuesday against the Bison at 8 p.m., a game that can be seen live on ESPN2.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series with Denver 10-5, with a 1-0 advantage in Summit League Tournament play and with wins in each of the last four games ... the teams played in front of 9,735 fans at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, the second-largest semifinal crowd in tournament history ... SDSU improves to 13-5 in Summit League tournament play, with a 4-3 mark in the tournament semifinals ... Daum scored in double figures for the 19th straight game, and extended his SDSU freshman scoring record to 484 points