ROOS CLAIM TOUGH WIN OVER JACKRABBITS

Thursday, February 15

Kansas City, Mo.

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

14-12,7-4Summit League

Kansas City

12-15,6-6Summit League

South Dakota St.

Kansas City

Charlie Easley

Photo by: Andrew Pedersen

2/15/2024 9:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Andrew Pedersen

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – South Dakota State stuck with Kansas City for nearly the entire contest, but the Roos made multiple clutch plays down the stretch to earn a 72-67 victory over the Jackrabbits in the Swinney Center on Thursday.

SDSU's lone lead of the contest came with 16 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the first half when a William Kyle III layup put the Jackrabbits ahead 8-7. Kansas City responded by going on a 10-point scoring run to push its advantage to 17-8.

That served as the Roos' biggest lead of the night. A pair of Zeke Mayo free throws tied the score at 28 with 3:58 left in the half. The Roos came right back with five consecutive points and went into halftime up 35-33.

Both sides started the second half slow offensively, however the Roos scored eight of the half's first 10 points to jump out to a 43-35 edge. SDSU whittled the margin down to 45-44 with 11:14 to play, but the Roos came back with five points to push their lead to six.

A William Kyle III dunk and Charlie Easley 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions momentarily tied the game at 52 with 7:01 remaining. Just 17 seconds later, Kansas City's Cameron Faas converted on a three-point play, then Babacar Diallo followed with a layup to again give the Roos control.

SDSU trailed by seven with less than four minutes on the clock. The Jackrabbits cut into the score and had it down to 62-61 after a Luke Appel layup with 1:46 to play. The Roos' Khristion Courseault connected on jumpers on consecutive possessions and the Jacks were unable to reply with a field goal as Kansas City put the game out of reach.

South Dakota State fell to 14-12 overall with the loss and 7-4 in conference play. Kansas City improved to 12-15 overall as well as 6-6 in league action. The defeat for the Jackrabbits to the Roos ended a 10-game winning streak in the series for SDSU.

Notes

Both teams shot just under 40% from the floor, but Kansas City finished with a 40-35 rebound edge. The Roos had 10 more field goal attempts than the Jacks before the final two minutes of the contest as SDSU tried to make a comeback.
The Roos were strong at the free throw line as they went 18-for-21 (85.7%). SDSU was just 16 of 25 (64%).
Kansas City was led in scoring by Courseault who scored 17 points which included an 8-for-8 clip at the charity stripe. Jamar Brown also recorded 16 points as well as a game-high 10 rebounds.
Mayo led four SDSU double-digit scorers with 19 points. Kyle III registered 15 and tied his career high of five blocks. Easley scored 13 points, along with a team-high eight rebounds, and Appel added 11 points for the Jackrabbits.

Up Next
The Jackrabbits close out their road trip on Saturday. SDSU travels to Omaha to face the Mavericks in a 7 p.m. meeting inside Baxter Arena.

-GoJacks.com-