BROOKINGS – Skyler Flatten had a big game as he, Mike Daum and Tevin King celebrated Senior Day with an 86-66 defeat of Western Illinois on Saturday evening in front of 3,746 fans at Frost Arena.

The Jackrabbits won their second consecutive outright Summit League title in the process.

“I envisioned everyone just coming out and smiles everywhere and a lot of laughs and coming out and just trying to play as hard as we can,” Flatten said when asked about his expectations entering the contest. “Just bask it all in – it’s our last game in Frost; it’s going to be a great experience. I just took it all in.”

Flatten dropped in 23 of his game-high 31 points in the first half to help SDSU build a 49-33 advantage. He finished 11-of-15 from the field.

Daum posted his 52nd career double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

He said winning a regular-season crown means a lot.

“Every game is super important and at the end of the day, it’s hard to win,” Daum added. “It’s just hard to win games, period, no matter what conference you’re in and no matter what game you play. You have to go out and bring it every single night. So for our guys to, I feel like, get over humps during nonconference play into conference play and just continue to succeed and grow together as a team I think is a huge, huge – just kind of take your hats off for our guys today because of that and everything all year.

“Our guys have just stuck together so well throughout the year, so to get another regular-season title means the world to us.”

The Leathernecks cut the deficit to 51-44 with 17:14 remaining; however, the Jackrabbits countered with a 9-1 run to push the lead back to 15 points at 60-45 with 14:12 left.

Later, a 12-2 surge made it 72-52 with 8:18 showing on the clock and the outcome was never in doubt down the stretch.

“I’m really proud of our team for how they competed today, especially as the game wore on,” said SDSU coach T.J. Otzelberger. “It’s never easy on Senior Night – there are a lot of other things going on; a lot of emotions; a lot of things that you’re going through – but I thought our guys were able to lock in at points in time and do the job we needed to do to come out with a victory.”

The Jackrabbits shot 49.2 percent (29-of-59) from the floor and had eight turnovers.

David Jenkins scored 12 points and Alex Arians 11.

King totaled four points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.

It was another day at the office for the point guard.

“It was really just taking care of business,” he said. “Day in and day out, it’s the same to us every day. I mean, we know what we have to do. We have a conference championship to win – just take care of business and roll into the Summit League tournament.”

Simple enough.

Now it’s on to the Summit League Men’s Basketball Championship, where the Jackrabbits are the three-time defending champs.

South Dakota State (24-7, 14-2), which ended up one game ahead of Omaha (19-10, 13-3) in the final standings, faces Western Illinois again in the quarterfinals Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

“It’s not easy,” Otzelberger said of the tournament. “When you’re doing three games in four days, it’s tough. I don’t think it’s any secret, we’re not going overly deep into our rotation now either, so you know that could be a factor. But, look, at the end of the day, I have the best team, I have the best players, I have the best guys, and we need to be on our best for three nights one game at a time and just see how it goes.”

Notes

In addition to its two outright crowns, SDSU shared the Summit League regular-season title in 2012-13 (13-3), 2014-15 (12-4) and 2015-16 (12-4), earning the No. 1 seed in 2013 and 2015.  The Jackrabbits were 13-1 a year ago. SDSU won postseason tournament titles in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Daum

The Kimball, Neb., native moved from 10th to ninth in NCAA Division I history with 3,026 career points, passing Bradley’s Hersey Hawkins (3,008 from 1984-88). Next up on the list is Saint Peter’s Keydren Clark (3,058 from 2002-06).

Daum is 20th in all divisions of NCAA in career points.

He is 36 points off the South Dakota collegiate record of 3,062.

Daum has 1,214 rebounds and 268 3-pointers.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 86, WESTERN ILLINOIS 66

Western Illinois (9-20, 4-12 Summit)

Ben Pyle 3-8 1-2 10, Brandon Gilbeck 5-8 0-0 10, Zion Young 3-9 0-2 7, Kobe Webster 6-12 0-0 17, C.J. Duff 3-7 0-0 7, Otis Dortch 0-0 0-0 0, Jeremiah Usiosefe 0-1 0-0 0, Keshon Montague 0-0 0-0 0, James Claar 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Maas 0-0 0-0 0, Jake Weyhrich 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Johnson 7-11 0-0 15, Jordan Hughes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-56 1-4 66.

South Dakota State (24-7, 14-2 Summit)

Mike Daum 6-13 4-4 20, Alex Arians 2-3 6-6 11, Skyler Flatten 11-15 3-4 31, Tevin King 1-7 2-2 4, David Jenkins 5-13 0-0 12, Ryan Krueger 0-0 0-0 0, Alou Dillon 1-3 0-0 2, Beau Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Owen King 3-4 0-0 6, Matt Dentlinger 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-59 15-16 86.

Halftime – SDSU 49-33. 3-point goals – WIU 11-22 (Webster 5-6, Pyle 3-6, Johnson 1-1, Duff 1-3, Young 1-5, Usiosefe 0-1), SDSU 13-29 (Flatten 6-9, Daum 4-7, Jenkins 2-6, Arians 1-2, Dillon 0-1, O. King 0-1, T. King 0-3). Rebounds – WIU 24 (Gilbeck 6), SDSU 36 (Daum 10). Assists – WIU 12 (Webster 3), SDSU 15 (T. King, O. King 4). Steals – WIU 3 (Pyle, Gilbeck, Duff 1), SDSU 7 (T. King 4). Blocks – WIU 2 (Gilbeck 2), SDSU 1 (Daum 1). Turnovers – WIU 12, SDSU 8. Total fouls – WIU 17, SDSU 12. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none. A – 3,746.

SUMMIT LEAGUE MEN’S BASKETBALL

Conf. Overall

South Dakota State 14-2 24-7

Omaha 13-3 19-10

Purdue Fort Wayne 9-7 17-14

North Dakota State 9-7 15-15

Oral Roberts 7-9 11-20

South Dakota 7-9 13-16

North Dakota 6-10 12-17

Western Illinois 4-12 9-20

Denver 3-13 8-22

SUMMIT LEAGUE MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Quarterfinals

Saturday, March 9

No. 1 South Dakota State vs. No. 8 Western Illinois, 6 p.m.

No. 2 Omaha vs. No. 7 North Dakota, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 10

No. 4 North Dakota State vs. No. 5 Oral Roberts, 6 p.m.

No. 3 Purdue Fort Wayne vs. No. 6 South Dakota, 8:30 p.m.

Semifinals

Monday, March 11

SDSU/WIU winner vs. NDSU/ORU winner, 6 p.m.

UNO/UND winner vs. PFW/USD winner, 8:30 p.m.

Final

Tuesday, March 12

8 p.m. [ESPN2]