Jacks hammer Gents in Lamb Bonanza

Saturday, January 2

Frost Arena

7:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Centenary

1/2/2010 11:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State opened Saturday's Lamb Bonanza with a 6-0 run and never let-up in an 89-59 win over Centenary in front of 2,866 fans at Frost Arena. The win completes a weekend sweep in the Jackrabbits first Summit League weekend of the season and gives the Jacks their largest margin of victory since joining the league in 2007.

"My concern coming into the game, was that coming off the Oral Roberts game on Saturday that we would be flat, just assuming that this was a game that we could be flat and walk through and win," said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy after the game. "Our players did a really good job of paying attention to the coaches, following the game plan and defensively, we were just really locked-in, particularly in the first half and that was the difference for us."

Dale Moss led a potent Jackrabbit offense with 14 points, including a monster dunk midway through the second half that put the Jacks up by 37 points at 70-33. Moss also added eight rebounds. Kai Williams finished with three rebounds, but those three give him 729 for his career, good for ninth all-time at SDSU. He also scored 13 points in the win. Clint Sargent scored 11 points and Anthony Cordova 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers for the Jacks, who improve to 7-8 overall and 3-1 in The Summit League. Cordova also added a game-high nine rebounds.

The Jacks shot a season-high 55 percent from the field on 32-of-58 shooting, and held the Gents to 38.5 percent from the field on 12-of-52 shooting.

Roman Tubner led a pair of Gents in double figures with a game-high 22 points, Pedro Maciel added 11 points in the loss, which drops Centenary to 5-9 overall, 1-3 in league play.

In addition to its opening 6-0 run, the Jacks put together a 12-0 first-half run that turned into a 19-2 run and eventually a 48-21 halftime lead, the largest lead at the break for SDSU since 2001.

The Jacks increased that lead to as many as 39 points in the second half, before the Gents closed the gap to the final 30-point margin, still the Jacks largest margin of victory in any conference game since an 83-50 win over Augustana on Jan. 30, 2003.

SDSU returns to action on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., when they take on UMKC at Municipal Auditorium at 7:05 p.m. The Kangaroos beat Southern Utah on Saturday in Summit League action 53-50 to improve to 8-6 overall, 2-1 in league play.