South Dakota State made a season-high 13 3-pointers on Wednesday at Western Illinois, and the Jackrabbits needed every one of them as they hung on for a 79-77 win over the Fighting Leathernecks.
The win lifts the Jacks to 20-8 overall and to 11-3 in The Summit League; the 22nd 20-win season in school history, the 11th for head coach Scott Nagy and the third in four years. Western Illinois falls to 8-16 overall and to 3-10 in the league.
Despite the milestones, coach Nagy did not come away from the game with a good feeling.
“We weren’t good. It was a struggle all night, and it started from the tip. Defensively, we weren’t good all night,” the Jacks 20-year coach said after the game. “The good thing is that the players feel poorly about it, they really do, they know they didn’t play well, it literally feels like a loss in the locker room, and that’s okay. We want to enjoy wins, but this is how good teams feel when know they didn’t play well, even when they win. We want to enjoy the win, but recognize that we didn’t play well.”
After a trio of early lead changes and tie scores, the Jacks went on an 8-0 run to go up 13-7 a little more than five minutes into the game, but Western answered with a 16-2 run to take a 23-15 lead with exactly 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
Down 34-31 with under five minutes left in the half, SDSU went on a 10-0 run, which included a pair of Lane Severyn triples and four points from Cody Larson, and closed the half on a 10-2 run to take a 41-36 lead into the break.
Western scored the first four points of the second half to quickly cut the SDSU lead to 41-40, only to see the Jacks push the lead to as many as 11 points at 67-56 on a Jake Bittle and-1 with 9:40 on the clock, but the Leathernecks came right back with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 67-65 with 6:36 remaining.
The Leathernecks eventually tied the game from the free throw line at 72-all with 4:15 left, and then tied it again at 74-74 with 2:51 left.
SDSU went up for good 20 seconds later on an old fashioned 3-point play from Larson, but the Leathernecks cut the SDSU lead down to 79-77 with the ball with 11 seconds left, only to see a Mohamed Conde layup roll off the rim as time expired to preserve the Jackrabbit win.
All five Jackrabbit starters scored in double figures for the second straight game, with Bittle, George Marshall and Reed Tellinghuisen all finishing with 14 points, with both Larson and Deondre Parks adding 13. Larson also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, while Keaton Moffitt finished with a game- and career-high six assists to go with two points and five rebounds.
The Jacks got their 13 triples on 23 shots, 56.5 percent, and shot 53 percent for the game overall, 25 of 55.
Western shot 55.5 percent for the game overall, 30 of 54, and went 8 of 15 from distance, 53.3 percent, but struggled from the foul line, shooting just 45 percent, 9 for 20.
Garret Covington led four Leathernecks in double figures with a game-high 31 points, with J.C. Fuller adding 16, Conde 12 and Dalan Ancrum 10 points in the loss.
The Jackrabbits return home for the final time this season on Saturday, when they host Oral Roberts on senior night at 7 p.m., following the SDSU women’s game against South Dakota at 4:30 p.m.
