It was a Summit sweep for the South Dakota State basketball teams Thursday night. The men rallied for a road win while the women were adding a home victory.
South Dakota State senior Jordan Dykstra hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers and went 8 for 8 from the free throw line down the stretch to lead the Jackrabbits to a 74-73, come-from-behind win over Denver on at Magness Arena.
Down 36-28 early in the second half, the Jackrabbits (11-10, 3-3 Summit) came back to get within two points at 40-38 on a Chad White 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 37 seconds left in the game, but the Pioneers (10-11, 3-3 Summit) outscored the Jacks 16-8 over the next five-plus minutes to push the lead to 56-46, their largest lead of the game with 9:11 on the clock.
Down 71-66 with 36 seconds left in the game, Dykstra sank a 3-pointer with a hand in his face to cut the lead to 71-69. After a timeout, Cody Larson stole the Denver inbound pass, which ended up in Dykstra’s hands again, and he knocked down another triple, this one with 14 seconds left that gave the Jacks their first lead since the 11:33 mark of the first half, a span of 31 minutes and 19 seconds.
Denver then turned the ball over on its end of the floor, which forced the Pioneers to foul on the inbound with four seconds left. Dykstra again hit the free throws, but Denver inbounded the ball to half court with three seconds left and Bryant Rucker hit a shot at the buzzer, but with a foot on the 3-point line, giving the Jackrabbits the one point win.
— Senior Steph Paluch (Pierre) led three Jackrabbits in double figures as South Dakota State defeated Denver, 72-61, in Summit League women’s basketball action Thursday in front of 1,751 fans in Frost Arena.
Paluch scored a team-high 14 points while junior Megan Waytashek (Lino Lakes, Minn.) and senior Tara Heiser (Watertown) each added 11 points. Senior Hannah Strop (New Prague, Minn.) grabbed a team-best seven rebounds for the Jacks who are now 15-7 and 6-0 in league play.
Both the men and women have showdowns with USD this weekend. The men play in Vermillion on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. and the women host the Coyotes Sunday afternoon at 1 p,m, Both games will be heard on 570 WNAX.
