BROOKINGS – St. Thomas went on a 24-4 run during the second half and that put the game away on Wednesday night as the Tommies beat South Dakota State 77-62 at First Bank & Trust Arena.
SDSU trailed 31-28 at halftime and then it was 40-40 before that run. Jackrabbit head coach Eric Petersen said he thought things snowballed during that run.
“Giving up 71 percent from field goal percentage [in the second half], you know they are a very good offensive team, so they deserve some credit with that, but obviously our defense wasn’t where it needed to be. Then we had a tough stretch there when we just weren’t getting quality shots and had a couple of turnovers and so, you know, obviously I gotta do a better job in those situations to help our team through those and find a way to throw a punch back,” Petersen said.
Four days after scoring the second-most points this season, the Jacks struggled to make shots on Wednesday night. SDSU shot 44% from the field and were just 5-of-27 from beyond the arc.
Petersen said some of the Jacks’ shot selection was questionable.
“I’ll have to watch the film to really know, but off the top of my head and just in the moment, I don’t love all the shots we took. I do think there were some probably quality ones. I think when we play inside-out, I’m always going to be good with those because those are pretty good shots for us and we got guys that have proven that they can make shots, but maybe there were probably a few rushed ones,” Petersen said.
SDSU sophomore guard Joe Sayler made three of the five 3-pointers on Wednesday night, but he thought that the Jacks settled for three too much.
“I think we settled too much, to be honest. We need to work on getting paint touches more and then getting inside-out three’s. … You can throw it [inside] or just be aggressive and get to the rim and play off two feet and create for others and create an advantage. We just need to do a better job of realizing [that we are not doing that] and then turn the page and get better,” Sayler said.
The Jacks went on an 8-0 run to go up 12-5 just over six minutes into the game. The Tommies would answer with an 8-0 run of their own and went up 18-16 with 9:18 to go in the half. It was then 25-24 with just under five minutes left in the half and Ben Oosterbaan and Nick Janowski made back-to-back three’s. Matthew Mors then hit a triple with 19 seconds left and that made it a three-point deficit for the Jacks at halftime.
During the 24-4 run in the second half St. Thomas scored 17-straight points and held SDSU scoreless for five minutes and 20 seconds in that stretch. Petersen said UST switched some things up at halftime and his team didn’t do a great job of staying engaged the entire possession on defense.
“They were kind of picking up some switches a little bit. We were kind of doing some different things coverage wise in the first half than we did the first game and then they kind of started rolling in there and playing a little bit more one-on-one in the post. That was probably one of the biggest things that I saw. Then just honestly, they do a good job of having longer possessions and you got to stay locked in that entire possession,” Petersen said.
SDSU tried to make a comeback. The Jacks went down 64-44 with 7:27 to go and went on a 12-2 run to cut it to 66-56 with 4:49 to play. SDSU would have three chances to make a single-digit game but missed all three 3-pointers and that was the nail in the coffin for the Jackrabbits.
UST shot 48% from the field, including 71% in the second half. Mors said it’s up to the players to execute and stop the other team from getting so hot in stretches.
“Give credit to St. Thomas. They’re a good team and they are very well coached. At the end of the day, we have to execute and own our matchups and protect the paint and negate some of those runs that they make,” Mors said.
The Jacks were led by Sayler who had 16 points. Mors had 13 points and five rebounds. Jaden Jackson had 11 points and Damon Wilkinson had nine points. They each had five boards. Jackson and Kalen Garry were a combined 1-of-15 from three.
St. Thomas had two players score over 20 points as Nolan Minessale had 26 and Janowski had 23. Oosterbaan and Hayden Tibbits each had eight points.
The loss drops SDSU to 11-13 overall and 4-5 in Summit League play. It was the first conference game that the Jacks lost at home. They are likely out of the regular season title picture and Mors said there’s no reason to get down on themselves because there’s still plenty of basketball to be played.
“I know there’s not a lot of basketball left for me, but at the end of the day, there’s still a lot of basketball to be played for this team. It means a lot to us. We’re showing up everyday and working really hard. We’re just a few steps away from being a really dangerous team [as we head towards the end of the season],” Mors said.
SDSU hosts in-state rival South Dakota on Saturday at 5 p.m. You can watch that game on CBS Sports Network.
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