Strong second half helps Jacks to 80-72 win

Wednesday, November 16

Brookings, S.D.

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

1-2

Wayne State (Neb.)

1-1

Wayne State

South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media/Dave Eggen

11/16/2016 9:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

South Dakota State men's basketball won its first game of the T.J. Otzelberger era on Wednesday night at Frost Arena, taking down Wayne State 80-72.

SDSU (1-2) shot a season-best 42.6 percent from the field and hit 12 three-pointers while using a strong showing from the free throw line (28-of-33) to claim the win. WSC (1-1) hit 13-of-26 from long range as part of a 46.7 percent effort from the field.

As a team, SDSU outrebounded WSC, 41-24 to win the rebounding battle for the first time this season and used 12 offensive boards to help the team carry a 16-5 advantage in second half points.

MIke Daum posted a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds for his third career double-double while Skyler Flatten had a career-high 15 points, reaching double figures for the second consecutive game. Tevin King (six rebounds) and Cole Gentry (three assists) added nine points apiece.

Three Wildcats were in double digits as Jordan Cornelius and Matt Thomas had 17 points and Austin Esters added 14.

For the third straight game, SDSU found itself in a hole after WSC hit a trio of trey's in the opening five minutes of action, sending the Jacks to the first media timeout down, 11-4.

A jumper in the late from Flatten ended a stretch of nearly three minutes without an SDSU bucket, helping the team pick things up and match the Wildcats bucket-for-bucket over the next few moments of play.

Down 20-11 just outside the under 12 media timeout, SDSU used a Cole Gentry jumper and an old-fashioned three-point play from A.J. Hess to cut the deficit to 20-16. From there, the teams traded runs of 10 and eight, respectively, keeping the margin the same at 30-26 after Flatten hit a three-pointer at 4:15 in the first.

Over the final four minutes, neither team established itself as carrying momentum into the break, sending SDSU to the locker room down 37-33.

Daum led all scorers with 12 points at the break while Flatten was second on the court with eight points.

Scoreless through the opening minute of the second frame, a layup from Andre Wallace and a Reed Tellinghuisen three-pointer gave SDSU its first lead of the night, 38-37, at the 18:04 mark, forcing a WSC timeout.

The teams traded buckets until past the under-16 media timeout where it was tied 42-42, and at 14:42 Daum hit a three-pointer near the top of the key to put the Jacks ahead, 45-42. The Wildcats, however, continued their pesky play to trade leads with the Jackrabbits over the next three minutes before a pair of free throws from Daum tied things, 50-50.

Chris Howell hit a layup on the next offensive possession for the Jacks, and though WSC responded with a three-pointer, a Cole Gentry answer from beyond the arc started the Jacks on a blitz of nine unanswered in just one minute of game play, putting SDSU ahead 61-53 with 8:39 to play.

Down the stretch, SDSU three times put the lead in double digits, building it as high as 11 with 15 seconds remaining (80-69), but a Wildcat three with 12 seconds remaining put the game at its final score.

Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger
On team's first win ...
"I think for us we're really trying to pride ourselves on the defensive end of the floor. For our offense to flow the way we need it to flow, we've got to get stops on the defensive end of the floor. They came out of the box quick again and it's been a consistent theme for us, down 9-0, down 8-0, down 6-0, again you're just a little bit tighter shooting the ball, and you're not allowed to play in transition when you're taking the ball when the other team is scoring. We have the schedule on the board and we knew that by doing that we were going to be challenged. We know the areas we need to improve on, so now it's just getting back to work each day."

On experimenting with lineups ...
"We're certainly trying different combinations. We settled with nine guys tonight as the rotation but we're still trying to figure it out and we're a work in progress. Obviously, you lose four permanent players that lose the ability of the guys that were here last year. There's a lot of new guys and a lot of new roles and as talented Mike Daum is, he's going from a guy people aren't aware of to the number one guy on the scouting report who people are doubling and tripling. So there's new roles for people, new responsibilities and I think in doing that guys are trying to feel through things and through substitutions we're trying to figure out what the right mix is as well."

On team forcing play at times ...
"There's feelings sometimes when you're walking the ball because they scored, it just doesn't feel right, so some guys might try to force a play or take something that the defense doesn't necessarily give us. We've got to be really efficient offensively. We've done a good job getting to the foul line, but we've got to be efficient so we value possession and I think we trust some guys to make plays, but at the same time we've got to let the game come to us a little more instead of trying to force that action."

On strong defense in second half ...
"We had a stretch there that created some separation due to us getting stops and being able to bring the ball to perform and creating some momentum. There's that middle stretch probably from eight minutes left to two or three minutes left, we were probably good defensively and other times that we weren't. I think for our group, our identity, we have guys that see the game offensively, right now the offense isn't flowing quite as well as we would like it to, we need to start on the defensive end to get stops and that will make it a lot easier on the offensive end."

Game Notes

SDSU is 91-18 all-time in home openers (where records available). Dating back to 2004-05, SDSU's first year of DI transition, SDSU is 11-2. Since joining the Summit League in 2007-08, SDSU is 9-2 in home openers.
Mike Daum had 20-plus points for the eighth time in his career.
Flatten's previous career high in scoring was 13, set in 2014-15 at Idaho.
SDSU has now won 30 straight games at home, continuing the third-longest streak in the nation.
Wednesday's game was an exhibition contest for Wayne State, who competes in Division II

What's Next
South Dakota State hits the road next weekend for two games to open a stretch of five games away from Frost Arena. SDSU travels to Wyoming and Idaho on Nov. 19 and 21, respectively, before three games at the Sanford Pentagon Showcase over Thanksgiving weekend.