Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota State’s season came to a close on Thursday night as the Jackrabbits lost 80-67 to St. Thomas in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Tournament at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
“Tough one for us tonight,” said SDSU head coach Bryan Petersen. “Obviously not the outcome we wanted. First round of the tournament, credit goes, St. Thomas played well, especially at the end of the first half, and really did some good things in the second half as well, too.”
No. 7 seeded SDSU was 6-for-29 from three in the game and went 2-for-19 from deep in the second half.
The Jacks got off to a good start as they led 10-7 just over four minutes into the game. It was then 15-15 when SDSU went on a 9-2 run to go up by seven with 8:16 to go in the first half. That was the Jacks’ largest lead of the game.
UST responded with nine-straight points to take the lead but SDSU was then up 35-30 with 3:27 to go. The Tommies proceeded to go on a 9-2 run to close the half and led 39-37 at halftime.
SDSU made one field goal in the first six and a half minutes of the first half and the Tommies used a 13-2 run to go up 52-41.
SDSU sophomore guard Joe Sayler said the difference between the first half and the second half was finishing possessions and not being able to get stops on defense.
“We just didn’t complete plays like we did in the first half. We hit shots in the first half, got open looks and knocked them down. Then in the second half, we couldn’t buy a bucket. And then we were always taking the ball out of bounds, and that never helps. Always going against a set defense,” Sayler said.
Part of the reason the Tommies went on a run was because SDSU center Damon Wilkinson picked up his third foul 42 seconds into the second half. Petersen said that changed SDSU’s game plan on both sides as he did not return to the game until there was 13:29 to go in the game.
“Damon is a big part of our team, you know, both offensively and defensively, and especially with our pressure defense. Damon allows us to play through the post a little bit. So, having to take him out at the 18-minute mark in the second half, that did limit us a little bit more of how we can run offense through him,” Petersen said.
The Jacks cut the lead to 52-46 but Ben Oosterbaan went on a personal 8-2 run to put the Tommies back up double digits. SDSU tried to make one last push as it made a single-digit game with 3:21 to go but UST made 10 free throws the rest of the way to seal the victory.
There were 6,614 fans in attendance on Thursday night and other than the few rows behind the St. Thomas bench and the UST band, the crowd was in favor of the Jackrabbits.
UST’s Nolan Minessale said his team stuck together in the hostile environment when things were tough in the first half.
“They have great fans, and obviously it was packed for them tonight, so there were a couple times the crowd kind of got into it. Those are hard, definitely with a young team, too, but I think we have a lot of leaders on this team who take over in times like that. I think that was the biggest thing. We had all five guys giving the same message, keep going,” Minessale said.
The Tommies shot 51.1% from the field and were 12-of-27 from three. Oosterbaan had 23 points to lead UST and Minessale had 22 points.
SDSU shot 38.1% from the field. Jaden Jackson led the Jacks with 16 points, but he was 6-for-18 from the field. Sayler and Wilkinson each had 13 points. Sayler was 3-for-12 from the field.
The Jacks finished the season with an overall record of 14-18. It’s their first losing season since 2010.
This was the first year under Petersen and he said he has a lot of reflecting to do this offseason.
“I think I have to take a deep dive in what I can do better,” Petersen said. You know, it starts with me, and then obviously we’ll meet as a staff and continue to have those conversations over the course of the offseason. We were right there in almost every single game this year.
“We weren’t perfect, but I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win in the majority of the games we played in. We have to find a way to get over the hump, so I think it starts with me. I got to figure that out, and I got to put the guys in the best position to possibly do that.”
Leave a Reply