Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS – South Dakota State closed the game with an 8-0 run on Saturday afternoon and the Jackrabbits beat North Dakota 91-83 in their final game at First Bank & Trust Arena this season.
SDSU had lost four of its past five games and sophomore guard Joe Sayler said it felt good to get a win on senior day, especially since they got over the hump in a close game.
“It feels good,” Sayler said. “It’s just something that we’ve been trying to work on every single day. We’ve been in a couple of [these close games], and we ended up on the other side. So being on top on this one, it feels good, especially our last game in this place with our seniors. So it feels good, and hopefully we can have this propel us and get us in the right direction.”
The Jacks improved to 6-8 in the Summit League with the victory. Seven of SDSU’s eight conference losses had come by 11 points or less and head coach Bryan Petersen has talked about needing to get over the hump in close games and he was proud of his team for locking in defensively in the final two minutes.
“It feels awesome,” Petersen said. “I’m hoping we can bundle this up and our guys can gain confidence and, like, we can do this. Like, because we know we have it in us and we’ve shown moments of it. We just haven’t stacked it together probably quite as much as we all know we can.
“… I think our guys just had a little bit more to them. We talked about it after the NDSU game. We had some good possessions, but we were missing just a little bit of extra, and that’s what you’ve got to do to beat good teams. … if they were challenging a shot, I think it was just a little bit more. If they had a box out or maybe what we call a rake on a gap, like they just had a little bit more to them.”
SDSU trailed 78-75 with 5:39 to go. Damon Wilkinson then made two free throws and Sayler put the Jacks in front with a lay up with 4:52 to play. Eli King responded right away with a three to give the Fighting Hawks back the lead. However, Matthew Mors and Kalen Garry made back-to-back lay ups to make it 83-81 with just over two minutes to go.
Garrett Anderson made a lay up on the other end to tie the game and then Garry hit a step back three with 1:27 left to make it 86-83. The Jacks got a stop at the other end and Mors hit two free throws to make it a five-point game with 36 seconds to play. UND turned it over on its next possession and Sayler put the game on ice with two free throws.
Garry said SDSU has been working on giving more effort late in games and it showed on Saturday afternoon.
“I mean, throughout practice this week and honestly throughout the last couple games, we’ve really just been working on how do we give a little more at the end of the game to just get stops. We were fortunate enough to make [them] miss at the end there and have a couple shots fall, so yeah, it’s a good feeling,” Garry said.
UND led 22-21 with just under 11 minutes to go in the first half. The Fighting Hawks then went on a 14-4 run to go up 36-25 with 6:37 to go in the half. It was then 38-27 and SDSU closed the first half with a 15-6 run to make it 44-42 going into halftime.
Petersen said he thought his team got some stops during that stretch and then were able to score it better.
“I think we finally strung a few stops together. … I just think we kind of hung with them a little bit with scoring to be honest with you. I think we were able to make some shots and we were able to score a little bit just to hang in there,” Petersen said.
SDSU shot 47.5% from the field and was 14-of-29 from three. The Jacks had all five of their starters score in double figures. Sayler led the way with 23 points and eight rebounds. Mors had 18 points and seven rebounds. Garry and Jaden Jackson each had 13 points and Wilkinson had 15 points.
This was Mors’ final game in Brookings as he is one of two seniors for SDSU. The Yankton native came back to South Dakota after spending a redshirt year with Wisconsin and has had a lot of different roles for the Jackrabbits. The 18 points today tied the second-highest scoring output of his career and Petersen said it was a great way to end his career at First Bank & Trust Arena.
“One of the things about coaching that’s really special is when you see a guy like Matt Mors, who’s invested so much in this program and to have his senior night end the way it did, with a win but then just make the key plays,” Petersen said. “It’s just the hard plays. Obviously he made some shots for us and he scored the basketball.
“But I’ll always remember, especially after watching the film, just all the 50-50 plays. It’s either them or Matt Mors getting the ball and he got it. And then something really good happens. So it gives you goosebumps as a coach for him to go out like that.”
UND shot 51.7% from the field and was 13-of-31 from three. Greyson Uelman had 19 points to lead the Fighting Hawks. Anderson had 18 points and Eli King had 14 points.
SDSU remains in seventh place in the Summit League. The Jacks will close out the regular season this week with games at Kansas City on Thursday and at South Dakota on Saturday. Sayler said SDSU needs to build off this win and create some momentum as they head towards the conference tournament in Sioux Falls in a week and a half.
“[Getting this win is] huge. To get one the way we did. You know, we’ve been battling, we’ve been battling every time we’ve been down a half, and just to get this one, hopefully we get [some momentum] going on the road. Hopefully we have a lot of confidence to do it again and stack them. Stack these next two games and then have steam rolling into the Summer League Tournament,” Sayler said.
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