South Dakota State rode a season-long eight game winning streak into its game at Fort Wayne on Thursday, but the homestanding Mastodons rolled to an 84-74 win over the Jackrabbits.

 

The loss drops the Jacks to 17-8 overall and to 8-3 in The Summit League, while the preseason favorite Mastodons improve to 12-11 overall and to an even 5-5 in league play.

 

“It started in the first half, when we weren’t very sharp at all, but we were fortunate that they missed some shots. It was our starters, it was our guys coming off the bench, they just weren’t very sharp,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “Once you give good offensive players a comfort level, then they really get going, and I think that’s what we saw in the second half.”

 

Both teams made 12 field goals in the first half and both teams made two 3-pointers, but the Mastodons made four more free throws to take a 32-28 lead into halftime. The Jacks took 27 shots in the half to shoot 44 percent, while the ‘Dons took 28 shots to shoot 43 percent in the opening frame.

 

SDSU shot 53 percent in the second half on 16 of 30 shooting and made nine 3-pointers, but IPFW shot 58 percent on 14 of 24 shooting and made seven of its 11 shots from deep. They also went 17 of 19 from the free throw line in the second half, shooing eight more foul shots than the Jacks shot in the game.

 

The Mastodons led for more than 15 minutes in the opening half, which saw six lead changes and a pair of tie scores, but never by more than five points.

 

The Jackrabbits cut the four point lead in half on their first possession of the second half, but IPFW scored the next five points to open up a seven point lead at 41-34 with just under 17 minutes left in the contest.

 

The teams then traded 7-0 runs, first SDSU to tie the game at 42-all, then IPFW to get the lead back to seven. The ‘Dons then used a 10-2 run later in the half to push the lead to 11 points at 66-55 with just over five minutes left.

 

SDSU would close that gap to as few as six points, but the Mastodons went a perfect 10 for 10 from the foul line down the stretch to secure its fourth straight win.

 

Deondre Parks led the Jackrabbits with 24 points, which includes a career-high six 3-pointers in the loss, he also tied a career-high with seven rebounds. Jake Bittle finished with 18 points, 15 in the second half, and led the Jacks with six assists. Cody Larson finished with 16 point and tied with Parks for a game-high seven rebounds. George Marshall scored 12 points in the loss, and tied a career-high with four assists.

 

Steve Forbes led four Mastodons in double figures with a game-high 23 points, Max Landis added 19, Isaiah McCray 14 and Joe Edwards 12 points in the win.

The Jackrabbits look to start a new streak on Saturday, when they close the Indiana road swing against IUPUI at 1 p.m. ET, noon CT.