Men's Basketball opens season with 65-54 win

Friday, November 10

Brookings, S.D.

8:15 p.m.

South Dakota State University

1-0

UC Irvine

0-1

UC Irvine

South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

11/10/2017 11:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Three Jackrabbits scored in double figures as South Dakota State men's basketball opened the 2017-18 regular season with a 65-54 hard-fought win Friday at Frost Arena.

SDSU (1-0) drilled 14 3-pointers on the night, using the long ball to carry an offense that hit just 29.8 percent overall from the field in front of a crowd of 2,669.

SDSU had 14 assists and only eight turnovers on the offensive end while instigating chaos on the defensive end, forcing 18 Anteater turnovers that led to 18 points for SDSU.

"We felt like coming in we had two things we needed to accomplish to get the win," head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. "The first thing, was that we needed to value the basketball. We did that with 14 assists and eight turnovers and it was great the way Brandon Key took care of the ball. The other was rebounding. Obviously in the first half we were minus-14, but we went plus-one in the second half so I thought our effort was a lot better there. With those two things put together, we felt like we liked our chances tonight."

David Jenkins Jr. paced the team with 16 points in his first collegiate game, hitting a team-high four 3-pointers.

Reed Tellinghuisen and Mike Daum dropped 12 points each, as Tellinghuisen matched Skyler Flatten with a team-leading eight rebounds.

Tevin King added nine points on the night with six boards.

Down two early, a 3-pointer from King sparked the Jacks on a nine-point rally to lead 12-5 at the 14-minute mark, but the advantage diminished quickly in a back-and-forth first half that saw five lead changes in the opening 20 minutes.

Even at the break, 31-all, King hit another 3-pointer just 26 seconds into the final period to put State in control the rest of the night, though UCI stayed within single-digits until the final two minutes of action.

After a 7-0 run put SDSU ahead 48-39 with 12:17 to play, UCI crawled back within two (49-47) over the next five minutes, but the Jackrabbits regained momentum with a Jenkins Jr. 3-pointer and put the Anteaters away down the stretch. The Jacks outscored UCI 16-7 in the final 6:40 to secure the win.

Game Notes

SDSU is 73-39 all-time in season openers with a 6-8 mark at the Division I level. In home openers, the Jacks are 92-18.
The Jacks are now 1-2 all-time against UC Irvine, picking up a win after dropping both contests to the Anteaters a year ago.
35 3-point attempts is third most in State's Division I history for a single game
Mike Daum rose to No. 11 all-time in career scoring at SDSU. He now has 1,408 career points after passing Jermaine Showers (1992-96, 1,399 points).
Reed Tellinghuisen is now 40th in career points as a Jackrabbit with 1,029, passing Jeff Booher (1988-92, 1,018 points) and Merlyn Smith (1955-59, 1,028 points) in tonight's game.
South Dakota State is now 16 wins away from reaching 1,500 program wins.

Up Next
South Dakota State continues its season-opening homestand Sunday against the University of Mary. Tipoff from Frost Arena is 2 p.m.

-GoJacks.com-