Two teams who shared the Summit League regular season crown battled down to the wire in the conference tournament title game with South Dakota State coming up a point shy.
Down by eight points with less than three minutes left in Tuesday’s Summit League Championship game, SDSU battled back to within one point with 42 seconds left, but couldn’t get over the hump in a nail-biting 57-56 loss to North Dakota State.
“It was a great game, and we weren’t great offensively and I think you have to give them credit for that. It was a very physical game and both teams played hard,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “I’m very proud of our kids when we were down eight points, they didn’t quit and gave ourselves a chance to win, which was all we wanted to do. I’m super proud of our guys, we’re super disappointed, but the season’s not over for us either, we still have a chance to play in a very, very difficult tournament and a chance to make a name for ourselves.”
SDSU falls to 23-10 on the season overall, and awaits an opponent in the NIT on Sunday. NDSU improves to 23-9 and earns The Summit League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The first half set the tone for the game, as the Jackrabbits and Bison played to six ties, with six lead changes before going into the locker room knotted at 23.
The Bison scored the first five points in the second half, but the Jacks answered with an 8-0 run to retake the lead at 31-28 with just under 16 minutes to play. NDSU quickly answered to force the second and final tie of the half.
The Jacks go the lead back with exactly 14 minutes left, and held it until a pair of Bison free throws put them up for good at 39-38 with 10:14 on the clock.
NDSU pushed its lead to as many as nine points, only to see the Jacks rally one more time, a rally that came up just short, as the Jacks missed a pair of go-ahead baskets over the final 42 seconds.
The Jackrabbits two all-tournament team selections led the way in the loss, with Cody Larson leading the way with 19 points, and Deondre Parks adding 13. George Marshall finished with nine points, while Reed Tellinghuisen scored five points to go along with his game- and career-high nine rebounds.
Tournament MVP Lawrence Alexander led all players in the game with 25 points, with A.J. Jacobson adding 12 points and eight rebounds.
