Jacks claim road win at Omaha

Saturday, January 28

Omaha, Neb.

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

10-14 (3-6)

Omaha

11-11 (4-5)

South Dakota State

Omaha

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

1/28/2017 9:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

OMAHA, Neb. -- South Dakota State led for over 30 minutes and survived a wild finish to secure its first conference road win, taking down Omaha 88-84 on Saturday night.

Playing in front of 3,038 fans with a strong contingent of Jackrabbit followers at Baxter Arena, SDSU (10-14, 3-6 Summit League) moved into a three-way tie for seventh in the conference standings in a win that saw the team shoot 50 percent from the field. SDSU sank 11 3-pointers as well and hit 15 of 17 at the free throw line.

Omaha (11-11, 4-5 Summit League) finished 45.8 percent from the field with eight 3-pointers and a 22 of 26 effort at the charity stripe.

Mike Daum led all scorers with 33 points, just missing a double-double as the Jackrabbit big man snagged nine rebounds as well.

Chris Howell (16 points), Reed Tellinghuisen (13 points) and Lane Severyn (11 points) joined Daum in double figures as Howell and Severym recorded career highs. Severyn added seven boards, Howell had six boards and five assists (tied with Michael Orris for the team-lead) and Tellinghuisen snagged five rebounds.

Even through the first two minutes of play, SDSU fell behind 15-8 over the next three minutes as Omaha went on a 9-2 run that ended with five consecutive before Howell sunk a pair of free throws at 15:36.

From there, SDSU outscored the Mavericks 21-6 over the next eight minutes with spurts of eight, six and five unanswered. Leading 29-21 at that point (7:35), SDSU saw the Mavs call a timeout and looked to climb back with a Tre'Shawn Thurman jumper out of the reset. SDSU, though, continued to push and soon led by 13 (38-25) behind a 3-pointer from Severyn at 4:30.

Ahead 41-27 inside three minutes to go after an old-fashioned 3-point play from Tellinghuisen, SDSU had its lead cut to single digits before the half and carried a 52-43 lead into the locker room.

Daum led all scorers with 22 points in the first half, adding five rebounds while going 7 of 9 from the field. Tellinghuisen was in double figures as well for the Jacks with 10 points while Howell had eight points. Orris dished four assists in the opening 20 minutes.

SDSU shot 51.5 percent as a team in the opening half, hitting 17 of 33 from the field with six 3-pointers. The Jacks finished the half 12 of 13 from the charity stripe.

Omaha went on a 13-4 run to draw even in the first three-plus minutes of the second half forcing an SDSU timeout at 16:41 with the teams knotted at 56-all. SDSU re-opened a seven-point lead (63-56) as Omaha was held scoreless over the next three minutes, and soon led by 10 (68-58) after a Theisen 3-pointer forced an Omaha timeout at 11:23.

Ahead 72-60 with 10 minutes to play, SDSU found itself in the midst of a 16-4 run that helped the Jacks open a double digit lead after Omaha's early blitz, only to see the Mavericks answer back over the next five minutes to close the gap to six (80-74) with 4:44 on the clock.

SDSU stalled Omaha's rally briefly with a 3-pointer from Tellinghuisen, but Omaha climbed within two (83-81) with two minutes to play after a 7-0 run for the Mavs that included five free throws.

Set up for a wild finish, Tellinghuisen drew a charge on the defensive end with 1:20 play and Daum hit a contested layup to move SDSU's lead to two possessions (85-81) near the 1-minute mark, before Omaha drew back within three (85-82) with 49.9 on the clock.

Fouled with 21.6 seconds on the clock, Daum sunk 1 of 2 free throws to move SDSU's lead back to four before Tra-Deon Hollins answered with a pair from the charity stripe with 13.6 to play.

Howell's front end of a 1-and-1 with 10.1 to go touched nothing but net, and the Jackrabbit guard sunk the second to give SDSU an 88-84 lead.

Omaha missed a 3-pointer on the other end with five seconds remaining, and Howell corralled the rebound to seal the win.

Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger
On tonight's win ...
"I was really proud. I thought our guys showed a lot of guts today. We talked about how the rebounding battle was going to be critical, we knew we were going to play a little bit of a bigger lineup with A.J. (Hess) being out, so we won that rebounding battle 38-23 and I'm really excited for the guys and how they stepped up tonight."

On Howell and Severyn's play ...
"I thought Chris gave us tremendous energy tonight getting to the basket and with six rebounds. He really made some great plays. Lane knocked down some big 3s and with seven rebounds we again talked about how that was a big deal. Obviously they contributed big with 16 and 11 points but the rebounds are what I was really happy with."

On next week's crucial games ...
"It's one game at a time, and as much as we'll enjoy coming out with our first road win in conference play, we'll come back and get ready preparing for Western Illinois. We know they're a good team and we have to be ready to play."

Game Notes

South Dakota State has made a 3-pointer in 328 consecutive games.
At least one Jackrabbit has reached double figures in 300 straight games. The last time SDSU did not have a player reach double figures was Jan. 12, 2008 at IUPUI.
Ian Theisen earned his fifth start of the season with the absence of A.J. Hess.
Mike Daum reached the 20-point mark in the first half for the first time in his career. He has scored 20 or more in a half four different times in his career, however.
Mike Daum moved into 34th place on SDSU's all-time scoring list with 1,082 career points. He passed George Schroeder (1,066), Gene Zulk (1,073) and Sid Bostic (1,079).
SDSU scored more than 50 points in the first half since Dec. 13, 2015 versus UC Santa Barbara. The Jacks have scored 50 or more in a half three times this season.
Reed Tellinghuisen returned to double figures in scoring for the first time in four games.
Chris Howell and Lane Severyn each recorded new career highs in points.
South Dakota State now leads the all-time series with Omaha, 54-33. Tonight's win snapped a two-game winning streak in the series for Omaha.

What's Next
South Dakota State returns to Frost Arena next week for a pair of games. The Jacks host Western Illinois Wednesday, Feb. 1 before Oral Roberts comes to town next Saturday, Feb. 4.