DENVER The Denver Pioneers shot 54 percent and made a season-high 14 three-pointers as South Dakota State suffered its first loss in Summit League play 99-80 on Saturday afternoon.
I told the guys in the locker room, that you have to give the other team some credit, SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said. They were able to knock down more shots than us, so you tip the cap and you dont feel sorry for yourself. Well dig into that film tonight and see what we can do better.
The Pioneers started fast by opening the game on an 8-2 run and were fueled by Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente, who scored 12 of his career-high 23 points in the first half. The Jacks compounded their issues with five turnovers in the first 10 minutes and trailed 24-15 midway through the opening frame
SDSU went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead down to 26-22 with 7:24 left in the first half before Charlie Easleys 3-pointer gave the Jacks a 36-35 lead with four minutes before halftime.
The Jacks held onto the lead until Denver went on an 8-0 run at the end of the first half and DeAndre Craigs long jumper gave the Pioneers a 47-43 lead at the half.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Tyson Garff and Craig gave Denver a 72-61 lead with 11:16 to play and Lopez-Sanvicente knocked down another 3-pointer with five minutes to play to give the Pioneers its largest lead of the game at 86-68 with five minutes to play.
While William Kyle III had another big game, shooting 10-for-11 from the floor and scoring a career-high 26 points and six rebounds, the Jacks shot just 40 percent in the second half and allowed the Pioneers to pull away.
Although the Jacks struggled to connect in the second half they still shot 52 percent for the game, leaving Henderson to focus on a defensive performance which allowed the Pioneers to make 14-of-29 (48.3%) of their 3-point attempts.
Weve got to be more disciplined on the defensive end, Henderson said. Offensively, you look at the numbers again tonightwe shoot 60 percent in the first half and were down. When you do those thingsthats why you play on both sides of the floor.
Zeke Mayo had 19 points for the Jacks, adding three rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Easley had 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block while Matt Mims had nine points in 27 minutes.
Tommy Bruener, who came into the game as the nations leading scorer at 25.4 points per game, scored 20 points in the first half and finished with 26 points and six assists in the game while Touko Tainamo finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and an assist. Craig added 10 points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal for the Pioneers.
SDSU out-rebounded the Pioneers 32-30 but committed 14 turnovers to Denvers seven turnovers. The Jacks also shot 6-for-22 (27.3) on 3-pointers and 14-of-17 from the free throw line while Denver shot 11-for-16 (68.8%) on free throws.
The loss dropped SDSU to 9-9 on the season and 2-1 in Summit League play. While the loss also snapped a 12-game winning streak for the Jacks over the Pioneers dating back to a 91-82 loss on Jan. 25, 2017, it showed the parity in the conference as all teams have at least one conference loss in the opening week of the season.
Denver is a much-improved basketball team like a lot of the teams in our league, Henderson said. …These teams in our league and with the transfer portal, and NIL and how that all plays into it evens the playing field and you can see that in our conference right now. I love our group and Im excited to go to battle with them and fight with them. But its going to be a fun and enjoyable league.
The Jacks will look to rebound when they return to Frost Arena to host Omaha on Thursday night.
Leave a Reply