SIOUX FALLS When South Dakota State needed it the most, its defense stepped up. The Jackrabbits held St. Thomas to a season-low in points on Monday night and SDSU advanced to the Summit League Tournament championship game with a 59-49 victory.
It was the second-lowest offensive output from an SDSU opponent this season and Jackrabbit head coach Eric Henderson said he is proud of the way his team has bought in on the defensive side of the floor.
All of the guys fought like heck on that side of the defensive end of the floor tonight. I know Charlie [Easley], William [Kyle III] were on the All-Defensive Team, but we have some other warriors as well. I feel like our group, especially the last month, has bought into that it doesnt really matter. Lets just win. I dont care whos scoring. Lets just put our best effort out there and be celebrating each other, Henderson said.
It was 8-8 just over seven minutes into the game and SDSU then went on a 7-0 run. The Jacks pushed the lead to 25-15 with 3:59 to play in the first half but the Tommies closed the half with a 10-3 run and trailed 28-25 at halftime.
SDSU made four of its first five shots out of halftime and took a 37-30 lead four minutes into the second half. The Jacks offense then hit a wall as they did not score for over five minutes and the Tommies cut the lead to 37-36 with just under 12 minutes left.
Luke Appel then hit a hook shot in the paint and on the next possession he threw up a long distance three as the shot clock expired and it went in. William Kyle III followed with a big time dunk and the Jacks led 44-36 with 8:44 left in the game.
Appel finished with 10 points and six rebounds. The prayer at the end of the shot clock was one of two 3-pointers on the night for him and he admitted that he wasnt as confident in that shot.
Im not going to lie, the second one was pretty lucky. I just kind of threw it up there, Appel said.
The Tommies cut the lead to 54-48 with 3:22 to play and had a chance to get within four but Raheem Anthony was charged with an offensive foul. Charlie Easley then made five free throws down the stretch to seal the win for the Jacks and put them in the championship for the first time since 2022.
Easley led SDSU with 13 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Henderson said it was not surprising that Easley made winning plays throughout the game and closed the game out with solid free throw shooting.
Charlie is a warrior and he just has a knack to make plays in big moments. Theres just a will inside of him, and we have other guys with similar stuff, so its kind of contagious. But Charlies ability to make timely plays is incredible, Henderson said.
It was a season-low in points for the SDSU offense as well. The Jacks shot 43.8% from the field and were 9-of-25 from three.
Our defense carried us in this game, Appel said Thats all I can really say about it. I dont think Ive ever been in a game where weve held anybody to 49 points before.
Zeke Mayo scored 11 points and grabbed five boards for the Jacks as well. Kyle had eight points and two blocks and Matt Mims had seven points. Mayo said he thinks this is the most connected that the team has been all season.
Its no surprise to me [that there was balanced scoring]. We have guys that can make plays. [Easley] came up huge down the stretch. Mims was huge down the stretch. William Kyle was getting rebounds like he normally does. When were all in on what we have planned, we understand its going to be physical, but when were as connected as we have been, its going to be hard to beat us, Mayo said.
UST shot 32.7% from the field and was 7-of-29 from three. The Tommies were led by Kendall Blue who had 13 points. Brooks Allen had 11 points and Parker Bjorklund had nine. Blue, Allen, Bjorklund and Carter Bjerke are a tough matchup for the Jacks because they stretch the floor by shooting the three.
On Monday night those four combined to shoot 11-of-32 from the floor and Henderson said his team did a good job of keeping the ball out of the paint and that led to tough shots on the perimeter for the Tommies.
Theyre a hard matchup, Henderson said. They have guys that can really stretch [the floor]. Their bigs play out on the perimeter and we play two bigs most of the game. At the end of the day, when theyre at their best theyre getting downhill and are playing inside the paint and spraying it and making threes and scoring around the rim.
It was really an emphasis to keep them out of the paint and we wanted to slow them down. I thought the way we guarded the ball screen, especially Bjerke and [Allen], was a little bit different than how we guarded it with [Bjorkland]. Our guys did an incredible job of executing and we were able to slow the ball down and make them go back a little bit and we were able to get back to the shooters, which was a big deal.
SDSU had 30 rebounds and UST had 33. The Tommies had 11 turnovers and the Jacks had nine. The two teams combined for 30 fouls, which was the most between two Summit League teams this season. SDSU was 8-of-12 from the free throw line and UST was 8-of-11.
SDSU will play Denver on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. The Pioneers beat SDSU 99-80 earlier in the season but the Jacks beat Denver 97-70 later in the year. Henderson said no matter the opponent, Tuesday is going to be a battle because the winner gets to go to the NCAA Tournament.
It doesnt matter. When its this time of the year, the opponent is going to be ready. Theyre playing for [the big] dance. Its going to be a battle, whoever we play. Im looking forward to it. Im really proud of our team and having the opportunity to play for the championship again is pretty exciting, Henderson said.
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