SDSU FALLS IN SUMMIT LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL

Thursday, March 5

Sioux Falls, S.D. (Denny Sanford PREMIER Center)

8:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

14-18,7-9Summit League

St. Thomas

24-8,12-4Summit League

South Dakota St.

St. Thomas (MN)

Jaden Jackson

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

3/5/2026 11:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Andrew Pedersen

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – South Dakota State and St. Thomas played a close opening half, but the Tommies pulled away in the second half en route to a 80-67 win over the Jackrabbits Thursday in the Summit League Championship quarterfinals in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

The Jackrabbits led for a majority of the first half.

They extended their lead to 24-17 following a Kalen Garry 3-pointer with 8 minutes, 16 seconds on the clock. St. Thomas responded as Nolan Minessale drilled consecutive 3-pointers to cut it back to a one-possession game.

South Dakota State led 35-30 at the 3:27 mark before St. Thomas went on a run.The Tommies scored nine straight points as they went ahead 39-30. SDSU's Joe Sayler made a pair of free throws before the end of the half to cut the deficit to 39-37 at the break.

St. Thomas narrowly outshot SDSU by a 50-48% margin in the opening 20 minutes. SDSU had a 18-9 edge on the boards, but the Tommies scored 14 points off eight Jackrabbit turnovers.

An Alec Squires layup for the Jackrabbits got the second half scoring started. The Tommies then went on a game-changing run. St. Thomas scored the contest's next eight points, along with going on a 13-2 scoring stretch, to go up 52-41.

A three-point play converted by Damon Wilkinson and a Jaden Jackson layup cut the score to 52-46 as the time dipped under 12 minutes to play.

St. Thomas' Ben Oosterbaan knocked down a 3-pointer and made a jumper on back-to-back possessions to push its advantage back to double digits.

The closest SDSU cut the deficit down to was nine as the Tommies kept the Jacks at bay.

St. Thomas outshot South Dakota State 52-29% from the field. The Tommies also had a 42-11% edge from 3-point range. UST finished with a 51.1% clip overall in the matchup while the Jackrabbits ended at 38.1%.

Two Tommies finished with 20-plus point performances in Oosterbaan (23) and Minessale (22). Minessale recorded a game-high seven rebounds and six assists.

Three Jackrabbits scored in double digits on Thursday. Jackson had a team-high 16 points. He was followed by Sayler (13) and Damon Wilkinson (13). Sayler dished out an SDSU-high four assists.

South Dakota State's 2025-26 season wrapped up with a 14-18 record. The game was the final contest in the collegiate careers of Caleb Delzell and Matthew Mors.

-GoJacks.com-