Wolters shines bright, but Jacks fall to NDSU

Saturday, December 4

Frost Arena

7:30 p.m.

South Dakota State University

North Dakota State

12/4/2010 11:42:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

The South Dakota State men put two streaks on the line on Saturday in its Summit League opener against North Dakota State. The first being its six game winning streak, the second being its eight game losing streak to the Bison. Unfortunately for the Jackrabbits, and despite a career-high 36 points from Nate Wolters, the later streak prevailed, as the Jacks fell 82-75 in front of 5,547 fans at Frost Arena.

The loss snaps the Jackrabbits Division I best six game winning streak, dropping them to 6-1 overall, 0-1 in The Summit League. The Bison improve to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in league play.

Wolters game and career-high 36 points marked the best performance by a Jackrabbit at Frost Arena since Andy Moeller scored 32 against Northern State on March 13, 2004, and the most points scored by a Jackrabbit since Austin Hansen scored 36 against Fort Hays State in the North Central Regional Tournament on March 14, 2003.

Wolters added six rebounds, six assists and three rebounds in the loss. Clint Sargent pitched in with 11 and Tony Fiegen 10 points in the loss.

TrayVonn Wright led five Bison in double figures with 15 points and added a game-high 15 rebounds, including nine offensive boards, as NDSU dominated the glass with a 55-37 rebounding edge.

"As long as I've been here, and as important as rebounding is to us, I don't know if I've had a team give up 25 offensive rebounds," head coach Scott Nagy said. "I told our guys that the tougher team would win the game and I think that's the case tonight, particularly when you look at the rebounds. We got beat 18 on the boards, so NDSU was tougher."

Jacks opened on a 7-0 run, but NDSU rebounded with a 15-2 run and led by as many as 11 in the first half before Wolters cut the lead the nine with a late bucket that gave the Bison a 37-28 lead at halftime.

The Jackrabbits started cutting into that lead in the second half and came back to force three ties before eventually taking a 53-51 lead 10:48 left in the game on a Wolters steal that led to a Dale Moss dunk.

The lead did not last though, as the Bison quickly tied the game for the fourth and final time with an offensive rebound and dunk by Wright. NDSU forced a turnover on the other end and then went up for good when Carlson put back a Wright miss to put the Bison up 55-53 with just over nine minutes left to play.

The Jackrabbits return to action on Wednesday with game six in the seven game home stand, when they host Mayville State at 7 p.m.