Jackrabbits drop shootout to Oakland

Thursday, January 20

Frost Arena

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Oakland

Jacks fall in back and forth battle with Cal Poly

1/20/2011 11:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

South Dakota State and Oakland combined for 185 points on Thursday, the highest combined total since Jan. 16, 2004, in a Summit League shootout at Frost Arena, but in the end, the Golden Grizzlies came out on top with a 97-88 win in front of 3,241 fans.

The Jackrabbits fall to 12-7 overall with the loss and to an even 4-4 in Summit League play, while Oakland improves to 13-8 overall and 8-0 in league play. The Oakland win marks its 16th straight in Summit League play, tying a record they set last year and share with Cleveland State, who won 16 straight league games two different times.

Clint Sargent and Jordan Dykstra both scored 18 points to lead the Jacks, with Dykstra adding eight rebounds. Nate Wolters added 16 points and seven assists, while Tony Fiegen finished with a career-high 15 points in his first start since the season-opener.

All five OU starters scored in double figures, two of which finished with double-doubles, including NBA prospect Keith Benson, who scored a game-high 28 points and added 11 rebounds. Reggie Hamilton scored 18 points and added a game-high nine assists. Travis Bader scored 16, Will Hudson 16 and Drew Valentine 11 points to go along with his game-high 13 rebounds.

Oakland scored first and jumped out to an early 14-4 lead, but the Jackrabbits hung tough and fought back to tie the game at 29-all with 8:38 left in the first half.

The hot-shooting Golden Grizzlies came right back with a three-pointer on the other end and pushed their lead back to 10 points at 54-44 at halftime, after shooting 61 percent over the first 20 minutes on 22-of-36 shooting.

OU stretched the lead to a game-high 18 points with just under 14 minutes to play, but the Jacks could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The Jackrabbits held Oakland to 48 percent shooting in the second half, but the Grizzlies still finished with a 55 percent shooting percentage (37-of-67), while the Jacks finished the game shooting 45 percent (35-77).

SDSU looks to avoid its first three game skid of the season on Saturday, when the Jacks close out the first half of The Summit League season against IPFW, who enters the game ranked second in the league standings with a 6-2 record after downing North Dakota State 84-80 on Thursday in Fargo.

The Jackrabbits and Mastodons tip-off at 7:30 p.m., following the SDSU women's game vs. IPFW at 5 p.m.