BROOKINGS – There was another comeback victory at Frost Arena Sunday afternoon. The Jackrabbits scored 49 second half points and erased a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat Purdue Fort Wayne 75-64.

“It was a tough start,” SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said. “Give coach [Jon] Coffman credit. I thought Fort Wayne came in and had great deal of energy to start the game and on the other end we were walking it up and turning it over and not making any shots. So it wasn’t a pretty first half, but our second half was pretty special.” 

SDSU went up 4-2 and that would be their only lead in the first half. The Mastadons then went on a 20-4 run to take a 14-point lead, which was the largest lead for PFW. The ‘Dons took a 36-26 lead into halftime.

There was no panic for the Jacks though. SDSU forward Matt Dentlinger said Henderson told his guys at halftime to stay patient and correct what they were doing wrong.

“His halftime talk was just correcting. Our looks were there, we just needed to stick with it, take care of the ball, I think we had like 11 turnovers in the first half and they had 19 points off of those turnovers and we had no points off of their turnovers. We needed to flip that and focus on rebounding too,” Dentllinger said.

SDSU responded to Henderson’s halftime speech right away. They started the half on a 12-0 run to take the lead and outscored the Mastadons 27-3 in the first eight minutes of the half. The onslaught continued with SDSU’s lead growing to 66-45 with 7:36 left in the game.

“I really do believe it started with our defense and we were able to get some easy baskets and then the crowd got going and we were playing pretty good at that point and were confident. But we did have to change a little bit. We normally don’t set a lot of ball screens. … We usually just pass it in the post and see how they guard us and then play off of that. They didn’t allow us to do that at very effective rate in the first half. So we started setting some more ball screens, more in the middle channel and just start some false motion and we were able to get the ball moving from side to side a little bit when we weren’t scoring in transition,” Henderson said.

The Jacks (20-8, 11-2) were led by Dentlinger who had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Douglas Wilson finished with 17 points and five rebounds. David Wingett had 14 points and five rebounds. Noah Freidel and Baylor Scheierman each had nine points.

SDSU shot 50% from the field and were 7-24 from three. They did damage once again at the free throw line going 16-22 from the charity stripe. The Jacks also scored 38 points in the paint and outrebounded the Mastadons 39-30.

Matt Holba led PFW (12-16, 5-8) with 13 points five rebounds. Jarred Godfrey had 12 points and Brian Patrick had nine. Deonte Billups had eight points and eight rebounds.

The Jackrabbits won their 20th game of the season for the seventh time in the last 10 seasons. SDSU was picked to finish fifth in the Summit League and with three games remaining they sit in first place. Henderson said winning 20 games is a big accomplishment in his first season as head coach, but it says a lot more about the SDSU program.

“It doesn’t just speak for our team this year,” Henderson said. “A lot of credit goes to our guys, there’s no doubt about it, but it speaks for the tradition at this place. It speaks for what this place stands for. It speaks for the tremendous people that are filling up the seats every night. … [Winning 20 games] does mean something, but now is not is certainly not the time to reflect on that.”

SDSU plays at North Dakota on Wednesday at 7 p.m. They will then host South Dakota at 2 p.m. on Sunday and will finish the season in Fargo on Feb. 27th against North Dakota State. SDSU is a game up on NDSU in the win column and is two games ahead of USD. If SDSU wins out they will win the Summit League regular season title.  

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 75, PURDUE FORT WAYNE 64

Purdue Fort Wayne (12-16, 5-8)

Matt Holba 4-9 2-3 13, Jarred Godfrey 2-6 7-8 12, Brian Patrick 3-10 2-2 9, Deonte Billups 3-12 2-2 8, Dylan Carl 3-4 0-0 6, Marcus DeBerry 2-4 1-3 6, DeMierre Black 2-6 0-2 4, Cameron Benford 2-4 2-2 4, Josh Inkumsah 0-1 2-2 2, Tionne 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 21-56 16-23 64.

South Dakota State (20-8, 11-2)

Matt Dentlinger 8-8 2-2 18, Douglas Wilson 7-8 3-4 17, David Wingett 3-9 5-7 14, Noah Freidel 2-8 4-5 9, Baylor Schierman 4-6 0-0 9, Matt Mims 2-4 0-0 6, Alex Arians 0-5 2-4 2, Alou Dillon 0-2 0-0 0, Brandon Key 0-1 0-0 0, Owen King 0-1 0-0 0, Beau Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Aaron Fiegen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-52 16-22 75.

Halftime – 36-26 PFW. 3-point field goals – PFW 6-25 (Holba 3-7, DeBerry 1-3, Godfrey 1-4, Patrick 1-6, Black 0-1, Billups 0-4), SDSU 7-24 (Mims 2-4, Scheierman 1-2, Wingett 3-7, Freidel 1-5, Key 0-1, King 0-1, Arians 0-4). Rebounds – PFW 30 (Billups 8), SDSU 39 (Dentlinger 10). Assists – PFW 13 (Black 5), SDSU (Dentlinger, Wingett, Arians, Scheierman 3). Steals – PFW 12 (Black 5), SDSU 5 (Arians 3). Blocks – PFW 0, SDSU 5 (Dentlinger 5). Turnovers – PFW 12, SDSU 16. Total fouls – PFW 17, SDSU 20. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none. A – 2,409.