SIOUX FALLS – The Jackrabbits have all sorts of winning formulas.
South Dakota State beat South Dakota 97-87 in the Summit League Men’s Basketball Championship title game in front on a record 11,114 fans Tuesday night at the PREMIER Center.
The Jackrabbits built a 12-point lead in the first half with two-time Player of the Year and now-three-time Tournament MVP Mike Daum on the bench and then held off the Coyotes down the stretch to earn their fifth NCAA Tournament bid in the past seven years, including third consecutively.
“Just an awesome night,” said SDSU coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team won for the school-record 28th time this season, picking up its 11th victory in a row and 19th in 20 outings overall. “I’m really thankful to our fans. We talked about it as a team before the game, when you come out and have such passionate and enthusiastic fans who come out and support you, we definitely feed off that energy. And tonight, I thought we played really well as a result of it.
“So I’m really proud of the young men in our program. Like every game, different guys step up, they play for each other and share the ball, and we’re fortunate to come out with a win against a very, very good team – a very well-coached team we have a lot of respect for.”
Daum took a seat at the 11:11 mark after picking up his second foul, and Nick Fuller’s two free throws gave USD an 18-17 lead. Tevin King picked up his second 41 seconds later.
No problem, right?
Enter David Jenkins Jr.
The freshman scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the opening half, and Reed Tellinghuisen added nine. Brandon Key took over at point guard and dropped in six points while dishing out four assists, and Skyler Flatten and Lane Severyn added five markers apiece.
“Just making sure I stay aggressive at all times,” said Jenkins of his performance. “My coach and my teammates always tell me to be aggressive; they believe in me to do that, as well. So just making sure I took advantage of what the defense gave me and just capitalizing on that was a big thing tonight.”
Jenkins hit a 3-pointer to put SDSU ahead for good – 20-18 – with 11:00 showing on the clock. Severyn added a layup and Tellinghuisen connected from 3-point range to push the margin to 25-18.
Later, an 8-0 spurt – Severyn hit a 3, Tellinghuisen made a free throw, Brandon Key drove for a score and Jenkins scored in the paint – made it 37-25.
The lead twice reached 15 points, and SDSU went into the break up 47-35.
“I’m just super proud of my teammates, the way they had my back when I was on the bench with foul trouble,” said Daum, who ended up with 25 points (six in the first half) and 11 rebounds. “What was going through my mind is I was just waiting. In the second half, I knew I had to have a big one to help this team get over. But our guys did such a great job in the first half of kind of establishing a little bit of a lead while I was out and they just did a great job of picking me up.”
King opened the second-half scoring and Daum hit a pair of treys during a 10-2 push the put the Jackrabbits ahead 57-37 with 16 minutes to play.
As they always do, the Coyotes continued to grind and eventually pulled within six points – 83-77 – with 3:55 showing on the clock.
Daum scored on the other end. USD’s Matt Mooney hit two foul shots but Daum matched that on the other end with 2:25 remaining.
Jenkins’ 3-ball with 1:42 to go was the dagger.
Tellinghuisen also ended up with a double-double, tallying 18 points and 11 boards. Key totaled 10 points, Flatten eight, Severyn five and King two.
Mooney scored a game-high 30 points on 9-of-26 shooting, as Tyler Peterson and Tyler Hagedorn added 15 apiece.
“First of all, congratulations to South Dakota State,” said USD coach Craig Smith, whose team was the only Summit League member to defeat SDSU this season. “They certainly earned it. I thought they played one heck of a game; played really, really well. And you have to give them credit – Daum gets his second foul at the 11:11 mark and they extend the lead to 12 at halftime.
“We really struggled guarding them, obviously; they were cooking on all cylinders. They go 14-of-28 from the 3 and 21-of-26 from the free-throw line – that’s really difficult to overcome.
“On the flip side, I didn’t put our guys in a good enough position to succeed I felt like, especially when they made that big run at the end of the first half and then early on in the second half.
“But I’m really proud of our team. This game doesn’t define us; we’ve had a historic season; we’ve done some great things in terms of basketball, with 26 wins. … More than all that, I just can’t tell you how proud I am of this team.”
Summit tourney champs
SDSU won titles in 2012 and 2013 before rattling off the three-peat. The Jackrabbits are now 20-5 in the postseason tourney and they have won 11 of their past 12 games, including nine straight.
The Jackrabbits are 5-1 in title games.
SDSU is 6-0 overall under Otzelberger.
Tellinghuisen
The senior broke the school record for career 3-pointers with 254 (58-60-74-62), passing Clint Sargent (252 from 2007-11). He made three in the championship game.
Tellinghuisen notched his 12th career start in the Summit League tourney – SDSU is 11-1 over that stretch.
Mike Daum
• The junior joined Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew as the only three-time MVP in league history.
• He hit five 3-pointers to extend his single-season school-record mark to 91.
• Daum moved from ninth to eighth in Summit League history with 2,205 career points, passing UMKC/Oakland’s Reggie Hamilton (2,185 from 2007-12).
• Daum jumped three spots on the career rebounding list at SDSU to second with 845, passing Jordan Dykstra (835 from 2010-14), Lee Colburn (837 from 1969-73) and Kai Williams (844 from 2006-10). Mark Tetzlaff (1981-85) is the record-holder at 1,132. Daum moved up to ninth in the Summit League ranks in boards.
• He has 21 double-doubles this season and 32 in his career.
All-tournament team
Daum (MVP); Jenkins; Mooney; Paul Miller, North Dakota State; John Konchar, IPFW.
Notes: USD was appearing in its first Summit League final. … Jenkins has 82 3-pointers, the fifth-most in a season in school history. … “As much as it hurts for us, it’s a great day for the state of South Dakota,” an emotional Smith added about the game in his closing remarks. … SDSU senior Ian Theisen was in uniform but did not play. … Six of the Coyotes’ seven turnovers came on offensive fouls. … SDSU and USD last played for a league title as members of the Division II North Central Conference on March 5, 2004, in Omaha, Neb. The Coyotes won 73-69. … Scott Nagy, the winningest coach in SDSU history, helped guide Wright State to a 74-57 victory over Cleveland State in the Horizon League final as the Raiders earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament in his second year at the helm.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 97, SOUTH DAKOTA 87
South Dakota (26-7)
Triston Simpson 1-7 0-0 3, Trey Burch-Manning 4-5 0-0 9, Matt Mooney 9-26 9-10 30, Tyler Peterson 6-10 0-0 15, Tyler Hagedorn 6-13 0-0 15, Stanley Umude 0-0 0-0 0, Carlton Hurst 0-1 2-2 2, Joshua Doss 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Armstrong 0-5 4-5 4, Logan Pwer 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Fuller 2-6 5-5 9, Austin Sparks 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-74 20-22 87.
South Dakota State (27-6)
Skyler Flatten 3-5 0-0 8, Tevin King 1-5 0-0 2, David Jenkins Jr. 10-19 6-6 29, Reed Tellinghuisen 4-7 7-10 18, Mike Daum 6-15 8-8 25, Brandon Key 5-12 0-2 10, Lane Severyn 2-2 0-0 5. Totals 31-65 21-26 97.
Halftime – SDSU 47-35. 3-point goals – USD 11-29 (Peterson 3-5, Hagedorn 3-6, Mooney 3-11, Burch-Manning 1-1, Simpson 1-2, Fuller 0-1, Armstrong 0-3), SDSU 14-28 (Daum 5-11, Jenkins 3-5, Tellinghuisen 3-6, Flatten 2-3, Severyn 1-1, King 0-1, Key 0-1). Rebounds – USD 42 (Burch-Manning, Mooney 7), SDSU 42 (Tellinghuisen, Daum 11). Assists – USD 10 (Mooney 4), SDSU 13 (Key 6). Steals – USD 5 (Mooney 2), SDSU 1 (Severyn 1). Blocks – USD 6 (Peterson, Hagedorn 2), SDSU 2 (Flatten, King 1). Turnovers – USD 7, SDSU 8. Total fouls – USD 23, SDSU 19. Fouled out – Peterson. Technical fouls – None.
A – 11,114.
