Four different Jackrabbits scored in double figures as the Jacks used a strong second half to secure a 71-59 win over North Dakota State on Thursday, securing SDSU  the No. 2 seed in The Summit League Championships in March.  

The Jacks 28th consecutive home win boosts their record to 22-7 overall and to 11-4 in The Summit League, while the visiting Bison fall to 18-11 overall and to 8-7 in league play.  

“In the first half, the pace of play was at their pace the whole way, we just don’t have a way to speed it up because that’s not how we defend,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We were better offensively in the second half, much more patient, in the first half we took a lot of bad shots, but in the second half we took better shots, we were better at throwing the ball into Mike (Daum) and we had better scrap to us.” 

The Jacks opened the game with a George Marshall 3-pointer, and then got a put-back dunk from Reed Tellinghuisen to open a quick 5-0 lead. Mike Daum made it a 7-0 start for SDSU before the Bison got on the board about three minutes into the game.  

The Bison fought back though, and tied the game at 13, only to see the Jacks come back with an 8-0 run to take their largest lead of the half at 21-13 on a Deondre Parks 3-pointer with 8 minutes 20 seconds on the clock.

 

NDSU battled back to tie the game for a second time at 26-all with just under three minutes to play in the first half, but Tellinghuisen broke the with a 3-pointer from the left wing a couple of minutes later and SDSU took a 29-28 lead into the locker room.

 

The Bison go the ball to start the second half and scored to take their first lead of the game, the first of the game’s four lead changes, all over the next six minutes, before a Marshall 3-pointer put the Jacks back in front for good with 14:06 on the clock.

 

The visitors would cut that lead to one point on two occasions, but the Jacks used a an 11-3 run later in the half to put the game away.

 

Daum scored a game-high 20 points to lead four Jackrabbits in double figures, adding six rebounds along the way. Marshall finished with 15. Tellinghuisen finished with 14 points, while Parks added 11 points and tied with Jake Bittle for a game-high 7 rebounds.

 

A.J. Jacobson led a pair of Bison in double figures with 19 points and Carling Dupree added 17 points in the loss.

 

The Jackrabbits look to extend their home winning streak to 29 on Saturday, when they close the regular season against Oral Roberts on Senior Night in the 24th Annual Lamb Bonanza. The home finale tips at 4:30 p.m.