South Dakota State got 24 points from George Marshall and 17 from Deondre Parks, as the No. 8 seed Jackrabbits opened NIT play with an 86-76 win at No. 1 seed Colorado State for the program’s first-ever Division I postseason win.
The Jacks improve to 24-10 in the season and advance to the second round of the NIT to play at Vanderbilt on Friday. The Rams season comes to a close with a 27-7 record.
“I just can’t even believe how proud I am of our guys, that game was incredibly physical and we knew that it would be, we talked about it for two days,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We knew they would be upset not getting into the NCAA Tournament, but we were upset, too, and we had to get ourselves turned around and this needed to be a big game for us. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest wins in our program’s history.”
The Jacks fell behind 5-3 early, but used a 9-0 run, part of a 16-4 run, that ended with a George Marshall 3-pointer to put SDSU in front 21-9 with 11 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first half.
The Rams answered with a quick 7-0 spurt over the next minute to cut the lead to 21-16, but SDSU quickly got the lead back to double figures, and led by as many as 16 points at 44-28 with 2:41 on the first half clock, a lead that CSU to 47-38 at halftime, thanks in part to a Gian Clavell 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.
The Rams carried that momentum into the second half, scoring the first six points to cut the SDSU lead to 47-44, less than two minutes into the half. They would cut the lead to as few as two points a minute later, but the Jacks countered with a 12-1 run, that pushed the lead to 61-48 with just over 14 minutes left.
The hosts made one final push to get within five at 66-61 with under eight minutes to play, but the Jacks quickly got the lead back to double figures, and led by as many as 16 points before the Rams closed the gap back to 10 in the final minute.
Marshall added a career-high six assists and tied a career-high with five 3-pointers in getting his 24 points. Parks added a career-high eight rebounds to go with his 17 points, while Jake Bittle added 15 points and Reed Tellinghuisen 10 points in the win. Cody Larson finished with six points and led the Jacks with nine rebounds.
J.J. Avila led three Rams in double figures with 19 points, adding 11 rebounds for the game’s only double-double. Daniel Bejarano added 17 points and Stanton Kidd 14 points in the loss.
The Jackrabbits advance to the second round of the NIT to play at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday at 8:30 p.m. CT, in a game that can be seen on ESPNU. Fans can also listen to the game on the Jackrabbit Sports Network or streaming live for free on the Jackrabbit Extra on GoJacks.com.
