BROOKINGS — Another dominant second half led South Dakota State to another blow out victory on Thursday night as the Jackrabbits beat Omaha 93-55.

SDSU jumped out to a 10-0 lead. The Mavericks would cut the lead to 16-10 with 2:56 to play in the first quarter. SDSU then led 25-17 heading into the second. The Jacks extended their lead to 32-22 just over two minutes into the second quarter but Omaha went on an 8-2 run to close the gap to 34-28 with 4:13 left in the half. That would be the closest the Mavericks would get as SDSU led 43-35 heading into halftime.

The Jacks pulled away in the third. They opened the second half similarly to the first half with an 8-2 run. SDSU then went on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 61-39 at the midway point of the quarter. The Jacks took a 69-47 lead into the fourth.

“I just think we played harder [in the third quarter],” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. “We just played harder. I think our team always plays hard, I don’t want to say we didn’t, but we competed and there’s a difference there. I thought we were close to the right spot a lot in the first half, but we weren’t as good as we could have been. We were kind of in a [defensive] stance but not really in a stance. I just thought we competed a lot harder defensively.”

SDSU put an exclamation point on the win in the fourth. Omaha cut the lead to 79-50 15 seconds into the fourth quarter and the Jacks then went on a 22-2 run to go up 91-51 with 2:28 to play.

All 12 players that played for SDSU played four minutes or more. Johnston played 12 players in SDSU’s 79-42 win over Denver this past Saturday as well and he said that the past two games have been a good opportunity for him to play some players that would likely have bigger roles if they were on different teams.

“I think we’re always trying to be as good as we can now, which is in this game and moving forward, and then we want to continue to develop people. It’s really important to us. You’ve seen over the years that players as they get further into their careers begin to take on bigger roles, and that’s part of getting the chances with these kinds of minutes at some point. It’s building confidence and learning what they can do and what they’re capable of. … We have a lot of players on the team that could be playing bigger roles and we want to try to honor that as much as we can. It’s difficult, but they’re handling it really well and it’s fun to see them get these opportunities,” Johnston said.

SDSU shot 50.7% from the field and was 8-of-25 from three. Brooklyn Meyer led the Jacks with 21 points and 10 rebounds. She put up the same numbers in the win over Denver. On Thursday night she scored her 1,000th-career point and Johnston said reaching that accomplishment midway through her junior year is special.

“1,000 points at this point in her career is pretty remarkable. I think she’s probably contributed to another 400 or 500 points on our team, just because she always requires a double team and she’s such a good passer. She’s scoring a lot, but she creates so much for our team. For her to hit that milestone at home, I think that means even more to her,” Johnston said.

Haleigh Timmer had 17 points and five rebounds. Madison Mathiowetz had 13 points and six rebounds. Mesa Byom had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Meyer said the combination of her and Byom in the post has been successful because they’re both unselfish and they have a good connection with the rest of the team.

“I feel like all of our post players, we spend a lot of time together and are super close, and I feel like we’re a very unselfish group of players. We’re always looking for each other, and even with the guards too, we just play well off of each other. It’s just really fun,” Meyer said.

Omaha shot 32.8% from the field and was 4-of-17 from three. The Mavericks were led by Harriet Ford who had 12 points. Katie Keitges and Cora Olsen each had nine points.

The Jacks held a 45-33 advantage in rebounds. SDSU had 10 turnovers and Omaha had 16. The Jacks were 17-of-21 at the free throw line and the Mavericks were 11-of-17.

SDSU is now 12-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play. The Jacks had a rough end to the non-conference portion of their schedule as they lost to No. 6 ranked Texas 103-57 on Dec. 22.

Timmer said the Jacks tried to reset heading into Summit League play and she thinks SDSU is starting to hit its stride.

“I think we tried to reset our focus heading into conference play and put our minds on that. I think we’ve done a good job of starting off conference play good and having a good start and just focusing on the conference season. We’ve gotten into a rhythm and are going to continue to push forward,” Timmer said.

The Jacks will play the second game of a three-game homestand on Saturday as SDSU will take on Kansas City at 2 p.m. You can watch the game on the Summit League Network or Midco Sports Plus.