Jacks open league play at home with a tough loss to Oakland

Thursday, January 3

Frost Arena

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Oakland

Jackrabbits Host Denver Before the Break

1/3/2008 1:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

BROOKINGS, S.D. ? South Dakota State played its first home conference game at the Division I level on Thursday night at Frost Arena in front of 1,337 fans, but the Oakland Golden Grizzlies spoiled the night with a 73-72 win.

The loss drops the Jackrabbits record to 5-9 overall, and 0-3 in The Summit League, while the Golden Grizzlies improve to an even 7-7 overall and 2-1 in league play, heading into Saturday's game at North Dakota State.

Mohamed Bert? scored a season-high 15 points and grabbed six rebounds in just 14 minutes off the bench and Garrett Callahan also scored 15 points to lead the Jacks.

Ben Beran, who tied a career-high with four assists, scored 11 points to round out the double-digit scorers for SDSU, but Kai Williams did grab a game-high 12 rebounds and came up just one point shy of his second double-double of the season.

Tim Williams led four Oakland players with a game and career-high 19 points in his first start of the season.

Derick Nelson added 15 points, Johnathon Jones 14 and Erik Kangas 13 in the win.

Oakland jumped out to an early seven point lead and although they never led by more than seven, the never let the Jacks get closer than two points until a Michael Loney three-pointer got the Jacks within one with 4:30 to go in the first half.

The Golden Grizzlies would increase the lead back to three on an Erik Kangas jumper, but he Jacks battled back and took their first lead of the game on a Ben Beran lay-up with 3:25 on the clock.

Oakland would go back on top by three, but the Jacks came back, and took a 36-35 lead on a Callahan three-pointer with 45 seconds to go before halftime.

Jones nailed a couple of free throws just before the half to give OU a 37-36 lead going into the break.

Much like the first half, Oakland opened up a seven point lead to start the second half, but the Jackrabbits, who trailed for all but a total of 47 seconds up to the 4:36 mark of the second half, took a 64-61 lead with 4:24 left to play on a Callahan three-pointer.

The lead got to five points with 2:50 left to play on a dunk by Bert?, but Oakland battled back to tie things up 67-all and then take a 69-67 lead with just under a minute to go.

An off balance three-pointer by freshman Clint Sargent put the Jacks back on top 71-69 with just under a minute to go, but a Jackrabbit goaltending on a Brandon Cassise shot with 15 second left put the Golden Grizzlies back on top, this time for good, as Michael Palarca's potential game winning shot at the buzzer would not fall.

The Jackrabbits, who shot 58 percent (15-of-26) from the floor in the first half, shot 38 percent (11-of-29) in the second half for a game total of 47 percent.

Oakland shot 47 percent (15-of-32) from the floor in the first half and 45.5 percent (10-of-22) in the second half for a total of 46.3 percent.

South Dakota State won the battle on the boards 36-27, but lost the turnover battle 17-7.

The Jacks return to action on Saturday, when the host IPFW in the second game of a double-header at Frost Arena.

The Jackrabbit and Mastodon men tip-off at 7:30 p.m., the women tip off at 5 p.m.

The IPFW men fell to North Dakota State 94-67 on Thursday in Summit League action in Fargo, N.D.