South Dakota State overcame a 12-1 Idaho run to start Saturday’s rematch with the Vandals, but came back to avenge the early season loss with an 87-85 win at Frost Arena.
SDSU’s fourth straight win boosts its record to 6-3, while the Vandals second straight loss drops them to 3-4.
“The Saint Louis game was just the opposite of this basketball game, and we won it with defense against Saint Louis, tonight we won it with offense, because we played a good team that shot the ball well and we made a lot of mistakes defensively early that let them get going and let them get comfortable, and they’re a very good team and when you let good offensive players get comfortable, it’s hard to get them stopped,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We had to play well offensively tonight and we were, we were good enough.”
A Cody Larson layup with 15 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first half snapped the game-opening run for the Vandals and jump-started the SDSU offense, as they allowed one more field goal before going on a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 14-10 with just under 12 minutes left in the first half.
SDSU continued to chip away at the lead before taking its first of the game at 25-24 on a Connor Devine jumper with just over seven minutes left in the half, the first of five lead changes and two ties in the half.
The Jacks then used a 5-0 spurt at the end of the frame to take a 38-35 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half saw three more ties and four more lead changes before the Jackrabbits went up for good on an Ian Theisen layup with 14:46 on the clock.
That lead would grow to as many as 10 points at 71-61 on a Reed Tellinghuisen 3-pointer with 7:40 left, but Vandals clawed their way back, cutting the lead to just one point at 86-85 on a Mike Scott triple with 34 seconds left in the game.
Deondre Parks hit one of two free throws on the other end with 25 seconds left to push the SDSU lead to 87-85. Scott got an open look at a game winning 3-pointer at the other end, but it missed its mark. Idaho’s Sekou Wiggs grabbed the offensive rebound and got a game tying shot up before the final buzzer, but it bounced out as the horn sounded, preserving the Jackrabbit win.
Parks led four Jackrabbits in double figures with a game- and career-high 20 points, and led the Jacks with six rebounds. Tellinghuisen added a career-high 17 points, which included a career-high four 3-pointers off the bench. Larson added 15 points and Jake Bittle 13 points to go along with his seven assists, which ties a career-high.
Connor Hill led four Vandals in double figures with 18 points. Bira Seck added 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while both Scott and Arkadiy Mkrtychyan finished with 12 points.
The Jackrabbits look to make it five wins in a row on Thursday, when they play the first of three games in three days against Idaho State in Logan, Utah at the World Vision Classic, hosted by Utah State. The Jacks and Bengals tip at 6:30 p.m. MT, 5:30 p.m. CT.
