SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota State came away with a 75-66 win over Merrimack in head coach Bryan Petersen’s debut on Monday night at the Sanford Pentagon.
The Jackrabbits outscored the Warriors 26-12 in the final seven and a half minutes to earn the victory.
“[Getting this win] is good for all of us,” Petersen said. “It’s not just me. It’s our whole staff, our players, our returners who decided to come back, this was about them. And then our fanbase too. With all the transition and stuff, it was really cool for us to get a win in front of our fans down here [in Sioux Falls] on night one.”
Both teams got off to a slow start shooting the ball as it was 15-15 eight minutes into the game. SDSU scored five-straight points to take the lead but Merrimack responded with a 7-0 run to go up 22-20 with 8:38 left in the first half.
The two teams then traded baskets until back-to-back threes from Jaden Jackson gave SDSU a 30-26 lead. Jackson hit his first five 3-pointers and finished the game with a career-high 23 points.
“Jaden Jackson was awesome,” Petersen said. “He got us going in the first half and played a lot of minutes just [because] of how the flow of the game was and how he handled the zone, I just felt like we needed him out there. I was really proud of how he handled it. We expected this from Jaden, taking a big step in his career.”
Five-straight points from Matthew Mors put the Jacks up 38-30 but a 3-pointer from Jaylen Stinson cut the Jacks’ lead to five heading into halftime.
A lay up from Damon Wilkinson put the Jacks up 46-39 three minutes into the second half. However, SDSU would not make another field goal until there was 5:51 left in the game. Merrimack took advantage during that drought as the Warriors went on a 15-3 run to take a 54-49 lead.
Merrimack played in a zone defensively for most of the game and Mors said that made things tough for the Jacks at times.
“You have to give credit to Merrimack. [The zone defense] is their bread and butter. I think it took a little bit of an in-game adjustment for us and to really feel it out. Really, it’s all about sharing the basketball and I think we did a good job of that once the game got going,” Mors said.
SDSU responded with a run of its own as Mors hit two free throws and then back-to-back baskets from Joe Sayler and Jackson gave the Jacks the lead with 5:18 to play. A Kalen Garry three made it a 9-0 run for the Jacks and forced a Merrimack timeout. Garry then hit another three 43 seconds later to make it 61-57 with 4:07 to go.
SDSU stretched the lead to 67-58 with 2:31 to play and that was enough of a cushion to put the game away and begin the season 1-0.
The Jacks shot 42.1% from the field and were 7-18 from three. SDSU was 20-26 at the free throw line.
Mors had 16 points, nine rebounds, three steals and two blocks. The fifth-year senior from Yankton said he wants to do whatever is needed of him to win.
“I’m just going to bring what I can. Whatever the team needs, I’m going to do that at a high level. Whatever it takes to win, I’m going to do that. Especially with this team, we’ve talked about that we have some guys where they’re going to score a lot of points one night and then the next night they’re guarding the best player and doing some other things. I think what’s going to make this team dangerous is just the versatility that we have all across the board,” Mors said.
Wilkinson had 10 points and seven rebounds in his first collegiate start. Garry had nine points, seven rebounds and four assists. Joe Sayler, who was dealing with an ankle injury leading up to Monday night, had eight points.
Merrimack shot 32.1% from the field and was 8-29 from three. Petersen said he thought the Jacks were going to have to lean on their defense if they wanted to win.
“We talked about it, our defense has to win the game for us. In particular, this game, we told the guys that there were going to be some tough stretches because they’re really good defensively and it’s a unique deal and we can’t let that affect our defense. That’s why I was really proud of our group, especially in the second half,” Petersen said.
SDSU will play a Division I opponent again on Sunday as the Jackrabbits travel to Northern Iowa to take on the Panthers at 1 p.m.
