BROOKINGS – Coming into the season, Wednesday’s Summit League matchup at Frost Arena would have been touted as the Game of Week between the preseason favorite Jacks and second-picked IUPUI.

But South Dakota State built a 10-point halftime lead, before putting away the Jaguars with a 21-5 third quarter, to cruise to an easy 68-49 win.

“I was really pleased with the outcome, obviously, but most proud of how our team really rebounded,” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. “I thought we defended well; offensively, we played well, but I thought we rebounded really well ¬– we haven’t rebounded that aggressively for a long time.

“Our perimeter players did a great job on both ends of the floor – offensively, defensively – chasing down some rebounds; we didn’t give up a lot of second-chance points and we finally got some second-chance points ourselves and those seem like a small thing, but that’s important for us. At times, we haven’t shot it as well as we’d like to this year, so those second-chance points are important confidence boosters so I was really pleased with that part of the game today.”

Part of the Jackrabbits’ inspired play could be attributed to the return of Clarissa Ober to the lineup as the senior came off the bench to contribute 13 points, four rebounds, a block, a steal and an assist as SDSU improved to 13-4 overall and 4-1 in league play.

Having Ober in the lineup helped, but having the other senior – Kerri Young – take control by dropping 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting, plus pulling down nine boards and dishing out five assists was another huge factor.

Add Madison Guebert’s 12 points, along with Ellie Thompson’s 11 points and nine rebounds, and it made the Jackrabbits tough to stop on the offensive end as IUPUI couldn’t key on just one player.

It also helped that the Jacks shot 46 percent for the game (25-of-54), which included 7-of-18 (39 percent) from beyond the arc; and outrebounded the Jags, 35-25, which led to 13 second-chance points.

The only stat that could raise a red flag was 16 SDSU turnovers, but those led to just six IUPUI points while the Jacks took advantage of 12 Jaguar miscues for 16 points.

All in all, the Jackrabbits look to be on top of their game heading on the road to face Oral Roberts (10-7, 2-2 SL) on Saturday. Tip-off is at 12:30 p.m. in Tulsa.

Notes (From SDSU Sports Information) – Young moved into 27th in career scoring with 1,148 points, passing Lori Fish (1,133) and Lisa Kannegieter (1,130). ... Guebert’s 12 points give her 597 career points as Thompson pushed her career total to 749 points. ... Guebert sank two 3-pointers, making her 21 short of moving onto the SDSU career 3-point field goals list. ... With Wednesday’s win, SDSU improves to 41-2 (.953) in home league games in the last five seasons and 72-7 (.911) in all-time home league games.