For the second straight game, South Dakota State erased a seemingly insurmountable deficit late in the game, this time in a Summit League tourney semifinal for a 54-53 win over Denver.
Trailing 49-36 with just over five minutes left in the game, the Jackrabbits ended the game with a 16-4 run, with the last point coming on a Jake Bittle free throw with two seconds left in the game, but the drama didn’t end there. An SDSU foul sent Denver to the free throw line for a 1 and 1 with 1.2 seconds left, but the shot hit the front of the rim and bounced into the hands of Deondre Parks, which ended the game.
SDSU improves to 25-7 with the win, and advances to The Summit League finals on Tuesday, where they face No. 5 seed North Dakota State in a rematch of last year’s title game.
Up 30-22 at halftime, Denver came out hot in the second half, quickly erasing the SDSU lead with an 18-0 run, which gave the Pioneers a 40-30 lead nearly seven minutes in the half.
SDSU snapped the run with a pair of Mike Daum free throws with 13:09 on the clock, the first points of the half for the Jackrabbits, but the run would continue grow up to 24-4 before SDSU scored its first field goal of the second half, a Parks layup with 8:17 remaining that cut the Denver lead to 46-36.
Still down 10 with 4:18 on the clock, Denver fouled Parks on a 3-point shot, which found its mark, sending him to the foul line, where he converted the old fashioned 4-point play to cut the lead to 49-43, part of a 7-0 run that became a game-deciding 16-4 run by the Jackrabbits.
Parks finished with 14 points, one fewer than Daum’s 15 to lead the Jackrabbits, who shot just 27 percent in the second half on 6 of 22 shooting and 33 percent for the game overall, 15 of 45.
Jake Pemberton led a trio of Pioneers in double figures with a game-high 16 points. C. J. Bobbitt added 13 and Marcus Byrd 10 points in the loss, which ends Denver’s season with a 16-15 record.
The Jackrabbits season continues on Tuesday against the Bison at 8 p.m., a game that can be seen live on ESPN2.
