BROOKINGS Stellar shooting and strong defense in the second half allowed South Dakota State to blow out North Dakota 109-73 on Thursday night.
The 109 points were the second most against a Division I opponent for SDSU, only behind the 139 points the Jackrabbits scored against Savannah State in 2018. The Jacks shot 65.6% from the field, which was the fourth-highest field goal percentage in the Division I era. Their 42 made field goals were the third-most in Division I history.
SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said the Jacks did a good job of sharing the basketball as they assisted on 20 of the 42 made field goals.
The pace that we played with and how we shared the basketball was as good as weve done all year. We have multiple guys that can [make shots] and when you create them, and a lot of them were assisted, they become a lot easier. I liked how we were able to get downhill and play a little bit inside out, Henderson said.
Both teams started out hot as they traded baskets the first nine minutes of the game. UND held a 27-26 lead and the Jacks went on a 14-0 run to go up 40-27 with 7:47 left in the first half. The Fighting Hawks cut the lead eight a few times but SDSU closed the half with an 8-2 run and took a 59-44 lead into halftime.
SDSU opened the second half with a 17-5 run and led 76-51 with 16 minutes left in the game. The Jacks stretched the lead to 86-56 with 11 minutes to play. The largest lead of the game for the Jacks came with 2:23 left in the game as they led 107-69.
UND shot 46.8% in the first half and the Jacks held the Fighting Hawks to 21.8% shooting in the second half. Henderson said his team knew that they needed to lock in defensively because they didnt want the game to be a shootout.
We knew that they really have guys that can get downhill. [Mier] Panoam is electric and theyre a great offensive rebounding team. They had 14 points in the paint in the first eight minutes and we knew that if that continued it would have been a battle and it would have been a high scoring, no defense game. We didnt want that. We knew we had to buckle down defensively and we talked about getting the ball stopped earlier and making sure that our tags were a little stronger and making them score over the top of us, Henderson said.
SDSU was led by Joe Sayler, who scored 25 points and all of them came in the first half. He said he was letting the game come to him on Thursday.
My teammates trust me. They gave me opportunities to score, and then it was just about having confidence from our coaching staff. We practice every single day and get a bunch of reps and tonight they just went in, Sayler said.
The Jacks had four other players score in double figures. Isaac Lindsey had 13 points and Damon Wilkinson had 11 points. Kalen Garry and Oscar Cluff each had 12 points.
Lindsey said the hot shooting was contagious on Thursday night.
Once you see a guy like Joe throwing them in there like that, everyone kind of gets some confidence. We have a lot of guys that can score the ball, so we just need to keep moving the ball and well continue to knock down shots, Lindsey said.
SDSU was 14-of-27 from three. The 51.9% from deep was the highest 3-point percentage for the Jacks this season. It was the second most makes from beyond the arc this season, only behind the 20 that they made against Chadron State on Dec. 19.
Henderson said the 3-point shooting is a result of guards getting open looks because of how much attention Cluff gets in the post.
[Cluff] is a presence, thats no secret. He creates so much attention and people have tough choices to make. UND didnt really double him in the first half, but they did in the second half and the first two times [it happened], he kicks it out for an assist for a 3-pointer. Hes on high alert and is the first guy on everyones scouting report, Henderson said.
UND was led by Amar Kuljuhovic who had 14 points. Treysen Eaglestaff had 12 points and Mier Panoam had 10 points.
SDSU had a 39-31 advantage in rebounding. The Jacks had 10 turnovers and the Fighting Hawks had 11. SDSU was 11-of-15 at the free throw line and UND was 22-of-26.
The Jacks avoided a three-game losing streak with the win and improved to 2-2 in Summit League play. SDSU will welcome Oral Roberts to Brookings on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Henderson said ORU is going to be another tough test for his team despite the Golden Eagles being 5-12 overall and 1-3 in the Summit League.
It will be a battle on Saturday. The preseason player of the year [Issac McBride] is coming. I know theyve struggled, but you cant look at records right now and say, hey, they havent won a game in the league so theyre not very good, or theyre one and whatever. Cmon now. We know better than that, Henderson said.
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