South Dakota State Shot nearly 60 percent and got 28 points from George Marshall and 22 more from Deondre Parks, as the Jackrabbits ran away with an 87-76 win over Omaha, their 25th straight at Frost Arena.  

The Jacks improve to 17-5 overall with the win, and move into a three-way tie with Omaha and Fort Wayne atop The Summit League standings with a 6-2 mark through the first half of league play. Omaha falls to 14-8 overall, and IUPUI can join the fray on Friday with the same 6-2-league record.  

“It’s nice to see us shoot the ball well, it’s been a while since we’ve shot the ball well,” head coach Scott Nagy said of the Jacks, who shot 59.6 percent (34 of 55). “It’s nice to just be at home and our players feel comfortable and jump up and make some shots.” 

Down 4-2 early, the Jacks used a 9-0 run to go up 11-4 on a Marshall jumper less than four minutes into the game. Omaha would climb back to cut the lead to one point on three occasions, but SDSU added a 7-0 run later in the half, thanks to seven consecutive made field goals, to take a 31-19 lead, drawing a timeout from the Omaha bench with 7 minutes, 15 seconds left in the first half.  

The streak of seven straight field goals made grew to 11, and the lead grew to as many 13 points, but a late Omaha surge cut the SDSU lead to 41-35 at halftime.  

The Mavericks came out strong in the second half, and used a 6-0 spurt to tie the game at 43, only to see Jake Bittle put the Jacks back in front on the next possession at 46-43 less than three minutes into the second half.  

Stuck at 46-43 for 3 minutes, 20 seconds, Mike Daum broke the drought with a 3-pointer, followed by a stop and a Parks 3, a missed dunk by Omaha and a Daum and-1 for a 12-0 SDSU run that put them up 55-43 with under 13 minutes on the clock.  

The Mavericks would cut the lead down to as few as eight points, but SDSU pushed it back to 15 on a Parks dunk with just over two minutes left to seal the win. 

Marshall’s 28 points ties a career-high, while Parks’ 22 puts him over 2,000 for his collegiate career. He also added a game-high seven rebounds. Daum added 16 points off the bench, with Bittle pitching in with seven each in points and rebounds.

 

Jake White led five Mavericks in double figures with 18 points. Tim Smallwood added 15, Devin Patterson 14, Tre’Shawn Thurman 13 and Tra-Deon Hollins 11 points in the loss.

 

SDSU looks to make it four straight wins and three straight on the road, when they take on Denver on Saturday at 3 p.m.