Jackrabbits stun ORU in Summit quarterfinals

Saturday, March 7

Sioux Falls, S.D.

8:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Oral Roberts

3/8/2009 1:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

SIOUX FALLS – The No. 7 seeded South Dakota State Jackrabbits upset No. 2 seed Oral Roberts 72-69 in overtime on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of The Summit League Championships at the Sioux Falls Arena in front of a boisterous 5,481 fans, most of them cheering for the Jackrabbits.

Garrett Callahan scored a career-high 30 points in the win, which improves the Jacks to 13-19 on the season, becoming the first Jackrabbit to reach the 30-point mark in a single game at the Division I level. Clint Sargent added 12 points in the win, while an emotionally charged Dale Moss added 10 points.

The loss ends Oral Roberts' season with a 16-15 record, and ends its streak of being the league's lone representative at the NCAA Tournament at three.

Marcus Lewis led five Golden Eagles in double figures with 17 points, Dominique Morrison, Kelvin Sango, Robert Jarvis and Andre Hardy all finished with 11 points.

ORU opened the game with a 6-0 run to take the early lead, but SDSU answered with an 11-0 run to take an 11-6 lead with 13:02 left in the first half.

Oral Roberts came back with a second run, this one 8-0, to regain the lead, but only for a short time, as a Callahan three-pointer with 6:01 gave the Jacks a 16-14 lead that they would not lose for the remainder of the half.

SDSU led 28-23 at the half and held on to the lead until Oral Roberts started a 15-0 run at the 14:30 mark of the second half. When the run ended with 10:04 left in regulation, the Jacks trailed by nine at 49-40.

The Jacks never led again in the second half, but continued to fight back before eventually tying the game at 61-all when Callahan got fouled on a made layup with 16 seconds left.

Callahan sunk the free throw and Oral Roberts missed on the other end with three seconds left, forcing the Jackrabbits fourth overtime game of the season.

The teams exchanged baskets to start the extra frame, but the Jacks never trailed after another Callahan layup and one put the Jacks up 70-69 with 1:05 left in OT.

The Jacks came up with a stop on defense, forcing ORU to foul and Callahan sunk a pair of free throws with three seconds left to put SDSU up 72-69.

Stokes got a look at the potential game-tying three-pointer on the other end, but it missed its mark, giving the Jackrabbits the upset win.

The Jacks advance to play the winner of Sunday's quarterfinal game between No. 3 seed Oakland against No. 6 seed IPFW on Monday in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m.

NOTES: Career-high 30 points for Garrett Callahan ... First Jackrabbit to score 30 points in a game since Andy Moeller scored 32 on 3/13/04 at the North Central Regional Tournament in Denver against Northern State ... First Jackrabbit to score 30 points at the Division I level ... Jackrabbits first win in The Summit League Championships ... First Jackrabbits postseason win since the win over Northern State on 3/13/04 ... First Jackrabbit postseason win at the D-I level ... First win over Oral Roberts at the D-I level (SDSU beat ORU 92-83 on 1/24/68 in Brookings) ... Garrett Callahan's streak of consecutive made free-throws came to an end at 35 (missed 36th attempt.)