ST. PAULZeke Mayos floater with 6.1 seconds to play helped South Dakota State earn an 81-80 victory over St. Thomas at Schonecker Arena on Thursday night.
Mayos game-winner capped off an 11-3 run for the Jackrabbits, who trailed 77-70 with 2:37 remaining in the second half and came back to defeat a Tommies team that had won nine of its past 10 games.
It was a great win for our team, SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said. When you look at it, this is like a win and a half. Its a tough environment and [St. Thomas head coach John] Tauer does a terrific job. Butthe poise that our team had was terrific.
SDSU and St. Thomas battled evenly throughout the first half, playing to a 14-14 tie before the Jacks went on a 7-2 run to take a 21-16 lead with 7:11 left in the first half. The Tommies battled to take a 27-25 lead with 4:35 until halftime, but SDSU closed the first half on a 14-3 run, scoring the final 12 points to take a 39-30 lead into halftime.
After shooting 7-for-22 (31.8%) on 3-pointers in the first half, the Tommies finally saw their shots start to fall during a 10-3 run to begin the second half. St. Thomas eventually tied the game at 51-51 but the Jacks took advantage of a six-point trip down the court as Parker Bjorklunds offensive foul was bookended by 3-pointers from Kalen Garry and Matthew Mors to give SDSU a 57-51 lead with 11:21 to play.
St. Thomas made its move by scoring 12 straight points to take a 62-57 lead with just under eight minutes to play and expanded the run to 19-5 for a 70-62 lead on a three-point play by Kendall Blue. Mayo responded with four straight free throws to cut the Tommies lead to 70-67 with 5:24 to play but St. Thomas went on a 7-3 run to give itself a seven-point lead with 2:37 to go.
A free throw and a pull-up jumper by Mayo cut the St. Thomass lead down to 77-74 but Bjorklund got the points back on a layup with 1:33 to go. Charlie Easley knocked down a 3-pointer to make it a 79-77 game but fouled out on the following trip to send Ben Nau to the free-throw line.
Nau missed the first free throw to keep SDSU in the game but knocked down the second free throw to give the Tommies an 80-77 with 50 seconds to play. Mayo drove aggressively to the rim to make it an 80-79 game before Mims fouled Raheem Anthony on the other end to send him to the free-throw line.
After crashing into the stands on the play, Anthony missed both free throws before Mayo grabbed his ninth rebound of the game. With the game on the line, Mayo drove to the rim and launched the game-winner that gave SDSU its first one-possession win of the season after dropping its previous three one-possession games.
I think it just shows how much grit we have on this team, Mayo said of the win. Were coming around and were finally playing connected. It obviously takes all 40 minutes and they went on a runbut we didnt break. I kind of use that motto for us because weve been in situations like these for the past two years but our guys fought hard and Im just glad we came up with a win.
Mayo finished with a game-high 25 points including eight points during the 11-3 run to secure the win. Mayo also had three assists and three steals to go with his nine rebounds. The Jacks also got 13 points each from William Kyle III, who had four rebounds and three assists, and Luke Appel, who had two rebounds, an assist and a steal while Easley finished with seven points, five rebounds, a steal and a block. Mims had six points with a rebound.
Anthony finished with 21 points for the Tommies with four rebounds and three assists while Drake Dobbs had 18 points, four rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. Blue also had 17 points, one block and one steal and Brooks Allen had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
SDSU shot 55 percent from the floor including 10-of-16 (62.5%) on 3-pointers. SDSU also went 13-of-16 (81.3%) from the free throw line, committed 15 turnovers and outrebounded the Tommies 30-29.
St. Thomas shot 43 percent from the floor including 13-for-39 (33.3%) on 3-point attempts. The Tommies went 17-for-22 (77.3%) from the free throw line and committed 10 turnovers.
The win helped the Jacks improve to 9-8 on the season and 2-0 in Summit League play. SDSU will continue its Summit League schedule when it travels to Denver on Saturday but Thursdays win over the Tommies could be a prelude to a tough matchup against Pioneers guard Tommy Bruner, who leads the nation with 25.4 points per game.
Thats what conference basketball and conference play is all about, Henderson said. You know youre going to be in a lot of close games. [Bruner] is leading the country in scoring and [Denver] has been sitting on us for a week [but] were ready to rock and roll.
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