The South Dakota State men’s basketball team made just enough plays late as the Jackrabbits defeated Kansas City, 67-66, at the Swinney Center on Monday.
The host Roos battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit and took their first lead of the contest on a RayQuawndis Mitchell 3-pointer with 11 minutes, 52 seconds remaining, and went up 49-47. It began a see-saw matchup over the final 11 minutes of play.
SDSU had two separate three-point leads over Kansas City, but the Roos continued to hang in with the Jackrabbits and had leads of 59-57 and 61-59 as the clock reached the three-minute mark.
Four lead changes occurred in a two-minute span as SDSU’s Zeke Mayo connected on a 3-pointer, Kansas City’s Babacar Diallo made a layup, Matt Mims drained a 3 for the Jacks and a Shemarri Allen 3-pointer for the Roos put them ahead 66-65 with 37 seconds to play.
The Jacks put the ball in the hands of Mayo on their next possession. The sophomore guard drove into the paint and drew contact on a field goal attempt as the clock stood at 12 seconds. Mayo hit both of his free throws to put SDSU up 67-66.
Kansas City’s Allen had two opportunities to propel the Roos to a win, but his fadeaway shot with seconds left followed by a drawn-up out of bounds play that saw him try to finish with a tip-in with less than a second to go was no good.
The matchup was a tight one late despite a strong start early for SDSU. The Jacks went up 12-1 in the opening moments of the game as the Roos started 0-for-7 from the field. SDSU led by as many as 13 before Kansas City whittled the deficit to 39-32 at the halftime break. The Jackrabbits shot 55.6% in the opening half, however a 13-for-21 (61.9%) performance at the free throw line allowed the Roos to work back into the contest.
South Dakota State improved to 12-11 overall and 7-4 in Summit League Play behind the victory. Kansas City fell to 10-14 overall (6-5 Summit).
Notes
• Mayo led SDSU with 24 points which included a 4-for-7 clip from 3-point range. It was his fifth straight game with 20-plus points.
• William Kyle III scored a career-high 20 points (8-12 FG) for the Jackrabbits. He also matched Matt Dentlinger with a team-high seven rebounds.
• All seven Jackrabbits that appeared in Monday’s contest scored. They included Mims, Dentlinger, Matthew Mors, Broden Lien and Tanner Te Slaa.
• Allen paced Kansas City with 23 points while he was followed by Mitchell who finished with 19. The Roos went just 3 of 19 (15.8%) from the 3-point line.
• South Dakota State earned its eighth straight victory in the all-time series over Kansas City.
Up Next
South Dakota State returns to Brookings for its next three matchups. The Jackrabbits will face North Dakota next in Frost Arena at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
-GoJacks.com-
