JACKS CONCLUDE ROAD TRIP AT BRADLEY

GAME 5: South Dakota State (2-2) at Bradley (3-1)
When	Friday, Dec. 4 \| 7 p.m.
Where	Carver Arena \| Peoria, Ill.
Live Radio	Jackrabbit Sports Network \| WNAX 570 AM \| Tyler Merriam
Live Audio	Jackrabbits All-Access
Live Video	ESPN3 \| ESPN App \| Brian Bedo & Matt McClain
Live Stats	Live Stats
Game Notes	South Dakota State (PDF)
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook

The Matchup
     South Dakota State concludes its two-game road trip with a Friday night matchup against Bradley. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Peoria, Ill.
     Both the Jacks and Braves have reached the 20-win plateau in each of the last three seasons. Bradley is the two-time defending Missouri Valley Conference Tournament champion, while SDSU has won at least a share of a Summit League regular season title three consecutive years.

The Series
     Friday's game will rekindle a series that has laid dormant for 65 years.
     Bradley leads the all-time series 3-0, defeating South Dakota State 94-73 in the most recent matchup, on Dec. 8, 1955 in Peoria. Jackrabbit guard Jim Sutton tallied a game-high 24 points, but six Braves scored in double figures.
     The Jacks also came up short at Bradley on Jan. 18, 1947, and on Jan. 1, 1946.
     A side note to the 1947 meeting - the Braves used 18 players, 17 of which scored, in beating SDSU 71-53.

Freidel in His 20s
     Not only did Noah Freidel recently turn 20, but the sharpshooter from Tea has been a regular in the 20-point club as of late.
     He has scored 20 points ten times in 32 career games, doing so eight times as a freshman.
     He ended his rookie slate with a flurry, averaging 26.3 points over his last four games and eclipsing the 20-point mark in each. He drained 16-of-37 3-pointers and 37-of-72 shots overall, highlighted by a career-best 35-point outburst against Purdue Fort Wayne in the Summit League Tournament.
     Freidel has picked up where he left off last season, averaging 17.8 points through the first four games. He scored 22 against Saint Mary's last week, and on Wednesday posted a season high 23 points on 8-of-20 shooting, hitting 5-of-11 from long range in the win at Iowa State.

Scheierman's Success
     Baylor Scheierman started three games as a freshman, averaging 20 minutes per game as a reserve. While his role was key in SDSU's success, the Aurora, Neb., native has taken his game to another level during his sophomore campaign.
     Scheierman has already scored 62 points, an average of 15.3 per game. He tallied 191 points all of last year.
     He has started all four games, playing 35 minutes per contest, and has already made 11 3-pointers after hitting 19 of all of last season.
     Scheierman is shooting 53.5 percent overall, 47.8 percent from deep, and has already collected seven steals, including one that sealed the win at Iowa State Wednesday.

Summit League Favorites
     South Dakota State was the pick to win the Summit League in the conference preseason poll, garnering 33 of 36 first place votes. The Jackrabbits return the Summit's coach and player of the year and feature three preseason all-league honorees.
     Douglas Wilson was voted as player of the year, while Noah Freidel joined him on the first-team. Matt Dentlinger was chosen as second-team all-league.

Power Five Wins
     SDSU's victory at Iowa State Wednesday marked the fifth time in the past six seasons the Jacks have defeated a Power Five program. Dating back to 2008-09, SDSU has beaten a Power Five opponent eight times in those 13 seasons.
     Iowa State and Iowa have each fallen twice to the Jacks. In fact, SDSU is 4-0 against those two programs since moving to Division I.
     SDSU also has wins over Ole Miss, TCU, Minnesota and Washington in that span.

Run of Success
     South Dakota State has played in eight consecutive postseasons, a run that would likely have grown to nine if not for the COVID-19 pandemic causing all the tournaments to be canceled last March. That includes five NCAA Tournaments, a pair of National Invitation Tournaments and one trip to the College Basketball Invitational.
     Only 16 programs in Division I have played in each of the last eight postseasons.
     During this string of success, the Jacks have won five Summit League Tournaments and claimed at least a share of six regular season league titles.
     The Jackrabbits have won 20 or more games each of the last three years and seven of the previous nine seasons.

Frost Arena Effect
     No place in Division I men's basketball is harder for visiting teams to win in than Frost Arena. Don't believe us? Try this on for size...
     Since 2015-16, South Dakota State is 68-3 in Frost Arena. That's a .958 winning percentage at home over the past five seasons. Over that span, Kansas (77-6, .928) is second, and only Gonzaga (73-6, .924) and New Mexico State (73-6, .924) are over .920
     If that isn't enough, let's go back to 2011-12. SDSU has played 125 games at Frost in the last nine years, winning 119 of them. Six of those seasons, the Jacks didn't lose at home. Again, the .952 winning percentage is clearly at the top.
     Kansas (141-9, .940) and Gonzaga (135-9, .938) are the only two programs over the past nine years in the same discussion.
     The Jackrabbits have won 24 consecutive games at home, the third longest active streak in Division I men's hoops.
     Additionally, the Jackrabbits were one of 13 teams to go undefeated at home in 2019-20.

SDSU Athletics Division I Success Unparalleled
     South Dakota State's run of overall success in men's basketball, women's basketball and football is unmatched during the past decade in Division I.
     The men's basketball program has reached eight consecutive postseasons. Football has done the same, playing in each of the last eight FCS Playoffs and nine of the last 11.
     Jackrabbit women's basketball has been just as impressive, playing in 13 straight postseasons, nine of those NCAA Tournaments, highlighted by a Sweet Sixteen trip in 2019.
     Only four schools saw both of their basketball programs make eight straight postseasons appearances - Baylor, Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and SDSU.
     When you include football - FBS bowls or the FCS playoff system - South Dakota State is the only school whose football, men's and women's basketball team have played in each of the last eight postseasons.
     This dates back to the 2012 NCAA Basketball Tournaments and the 2012 FCS Playoffs.

Efficient Post Scorers
     The combination of Matt Dentlinger and Douglas Wilson proved to be virtually unstoppable for Summit League teams a season ago, as the Jackrabbits won each of their last 13 games in which both men appeared.
     Wilson shot 62.8 percent last season, good for eighth in the nation.
     In league-only games, no one in the nine-team conference shot over 60 percent. Except for Dentlinger and Wilson, that is. Wilson finished Summit play at 64.1 percent, second only to Dentlinger, who dominated the league by converting 69.7 percent of his attempts.

Division I All-Americans
     Two Jackrabbits have reached Division I all-America status while leading South Dakota State to national recognition.
     Nate Wolters led the Jacks to their first two NCAA Tournaments in Division I. He averaged 21.2 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds, earning honorable mention all-America honors from the Associated Press.
     Wolters followed that up with a senior season that saw him average 22.2 points, 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds. He won the Summit League Player of the Year and was named third-team all-America by the AP.
     The point guard from St. Cloud, Minn., graduated with a school record 2,363 points He was chosen in the second round of the 2013 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards.
     Not long after that, Mike Daum hit the scene, and the Kimball, Neb. native rewrote the SDSU record books again.
     Daum scored 15 points per game as a freshman, then averaged 20 or more in each of his final three seasons, ending his career with 3,067 points. He is one of just 10 players in the history of Division I men's hoops to eclipse 3,000 points in his career and ranks seventh all-time.
     "The Dauminator" was three times the Summit League Player of the Year, leading the Jacks to three NCAA Tournaments. An Associated Press honorable mention all-American in both 2017 and 2018, he was voted by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association as a third-team all-American in 2019.

Jacks Sign Two For 2021-22
     Head Coach Eric Henderson announced that Broden Lien and Isaiah "Zeke" Mayo signed letters of intent, indicating they will enroll at South Dakota State next fall and join the Jackrabbit men's basketball program.
     Lien (6-8, 220, Flom, Minn.) will graduate from the Andrews Osborne Academy in Willoughby, Ohio, in May. He previously attended Norman County East High School in Ulen, Minn. A two-year starter, he was Pine to Prairie Conference co-MVP last year, averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds per game.
     Mayo (6-3, 170, Lawrence, Kan.) will graduate from Lawrence High School in May. He earned second-team all-state honors in the largest class in Kansas last year. Mayo posted averages of 16.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists last year. Those numbers propelled him to the 2019-20 Lawrence Journal-World Boys Player of the year. He was also a finalist for the Class 6A player of the year.

No Home Games Until January
     In this most irregular of years, South Dakota State does not have a non-conference home game scheduled. In fact, the Jacks are not expected to be at home until Jan. 8 when they open league play vs. Western Illinois.
     If the schedule does indeed play out this way, it would mark the first time since in 35 years that SDSU did not have a home game in November.
               To go a step further, you have to go back to the 1925-26 schedule to find a season the Jackrabbit men didn't host a game until January. That season, SDSU played 20 games total, and only two in December - road games at Wisconsin and St. Mary's (Minn.).

-GoJacks.com-

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