KANSAS CITY – Zeke Mayo’s two free throws with 12 seconds left lifted South Dakota State to a 67-66 win over Kansas City on Monday night.
Shemari Allen tried to give the Roos the lead twice in the final 12 seconds but could not get either shot to go. Monday’s game was SDSU’s third on the road in the past five days and the Jacks lost the previous two to St. Thomas and Western Illinois. SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said he was proud of his team’s resilience on Monday night.
“I’m [just proud] of the resiliency and the bounce back from the other night,” Henderson said. “It was a tough second half for us at Western Illinois and things didn’t go right for us, and you felt like some things could have been different. We didn’t let that impact our play today and that’s what I’m most proud about. These are rough trips and for our guys to not make excuses, which were not going to listen to them anyway if they try, and to be able to play with the energy they did was special.
“To play through some foul trouble and adapt to a zone when we haven’t spent a lot of time on it, that’s the resiliency that I’m talking about. We just found different ways and bought in and listened, and really just stayed together and connected.”
SDSU (12-11, 7-4) jumped out to a 12-1 lead in the first five minutes of the game. The Jacks then led 29-16 with seven minutes left in the first half. The Roos (10-14, 5-6) would outscore the Jacks 13-10 in the final seven minutes and cut the SDSU lead to 39-32 at halftime.
The Jacks then led 45-37 two minutes into the second half, but the Roos would then go on a 12-2 run to take a two-point lead with 11:52 left. The two teams would then trade baskets and a put back dunk from William Kyle III tied the game at 59-59 with 4:13 left.
Two free throws from Allen gave the Roos the lead and Mayo responded with a 3-pointer to put the Jacks up 62-61 with 2:40 to go. Babacar Diallo then made a lay-up to put the Roos back up but a desperation banked in 3-pointer as the shot clock expired from Matt Mims gave SDSU a 65-63 lead with 51 seconds left. Allen would then respond with a three of his own with 37 seconds left to put Kansas City back on top before Mayo’s free throws.
Mayo led SDSU with 24 points and five rebounds. He was 8-11 at the free throw line. Mayo is from Lawrence, Kansas, and had more than 30 family members in attendance on Monday night. Henderson said it was nice to see Mayo come up big in a crucial moment.
“… The growth that [Mayo] has had has been pretty impressive and for him to [hit the game winning free throws] in front of his family makes it that much better,” he said.
SDSU shot 51.1% from the field and was 6-15 from three. Kyle had a career-high 20 points and seven rebounds. Henderson said Kyle gives the Jacks a lot of energy with the plays he makes.
“… He’s a dynamic player. We talk about different things give teams energy and [Kyle] certainly [gives that] to us. He was so active on the glass. He had four offensive rebounds and we capitalized on that too. So, he’s really doing a terrific job on both sides of the floor,” Henderson said.
The Roos shot 43.3% from the field and were 3-19 from beyond the arc. Allen led Kansas City with 23 points, five assists and five rebounds. RayQuawndis Mitchell had 19 points and six rebounds.
Kansas City won the rebound battle 32-30. The Jacks had 10 turnovers and were 13-21 at the free throw line. The Roos had eight turnovers and were 11-13 at the charity stripe.
SDSU now finds itself tied with Western Illinois for second place in the Summit League as undefeated Oral Roberts is in first. The Jacks will play five of their final seven games at Frost Arena. They will kick off that stretch on Thursday when they host North Dakota at 7 p.m. SDSU then hosts North Dakota State on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“It’s definitely been a long [road] trip,” Kyle said. “Obviously, we wanted to pull those other two games out [but] it didn’t go in our favor. This was definitely a win that we needed before we head back home. We’re going to get working again and hopefully put together a nice string of wins.”
