Herald Staff Writer
BROOKINGS, S.D. -- Tortured again.
South Dakota State's four-year stranglehold of UND continued Saturday night with the Jackrabbits -- behind a blazing start -- torching the Sioux 92-77 to keep its NCAA Division II playoff hopes alive.
UND's chances of making the six-team North Central Region men's basketball tournament remain solid, but the five Sioux seniors left Frost Arena knowing they never beat SDSU in eight career meetings.
"They've had our number our whole careers, I guess,"UND senior Hunter Reinke said."We were focused for this one. I thought everyone would come out and play well. But it didn't happen that way."
SDSU's Austin Hansen came out before the 6,104 Jackrabbit fans and played well. Real well.
The freshman guard drilled three straight three-pointers in a span of 51 seconds, giving SDSU a 14-4 lead. Hansen's shooting capped a streak of four straight three-pointers as Andy Cone's trey gave SDSU a 5-4 lead.
UND opened in a zone defense, but Hansen's shooting forced the Sioux into a man-to-man. It didn't matter. The Jackrabbits continued their offensive assault, building a 41-19 lead with 5:14 left in the first half. SDSU led 47-28 at the half.
"Statistically, we haven't shot the ball that well this season,"SDSU coach Scott Nagy said."But we've shot it well lately."
That explains SDSU's five-game winning streak, the best in the NCC.
Josh Cerveny (18 points), Chris Stoebner (15) and Casey Estling (14) all took turns torturing UND. The Jackrabbits had the edge in nearly every statistical category and their 23 offensive rebounds spoke volumes.
"The first half explained it all,"said Reinke, who scored 17 points."They came out with a huge run and we couldn't put the ball in the hoop."
The carnage continued in the second half. Terry Cress' lay-up with 14:43 left gave the Jacks a 64-36 lead. The Sioux, however, did cut that gap to 14 points (74-60) on Tom Jacobson's three-pointer with 8:40 remaining. But there never was any doubt as to the outcome.
"We got stormed,"UND coach Rich Glas said."They came after us. They flat-out beat us."
UND dropped to 10-6 in the North Central Conference and 21-6 overall. The Jackrabbits improved to 10-6 and 19-8. Entering the weekend, UND was third in the North Central Region rankings while SDSU was sixth.
The Sioux close their regular season at home this weekend against Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Colorado, two teams that have struggled much of the season.
"We just need to get back out there and play,"Glas said.
The Jackrabbits perhaps need to play harder to make the NCAA tournament field. They're at league-leading South Dakota and Morningside this week.
"If we can get 20 wins, that probably will get us to the fifth or sixth spot in the region,"Nagy said."But you don't have any control because of the postseason tournaments in the other leagues."
If upsets happen in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference or Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments, the Jacks could get bumped from the field.
The Sioux were bumped hard by a physical SDSU team."This just kind of puts us back in the mold that we have to come out and play hard,"Reinke said.
SDSU 92, UND 77
Key play: Three straight three-pointers by Austin Hansen.
Key player: Hansen, 20 points.
Key stat: SDSU grabs 23 offensive rebounds.
| UND (77) | |||
| Name | FG | FT | Points |
| Mustard | 5-9 | 1-2 | 11 |
| Travis | 6-11 | 4-6 | 17 |
| Behrens | 2-5 | 3-4 | 8 |
| Larson | 3-15 | 3-4 | 9 |
| Jacobson | 3-8 | 1-2 | 10 |
| Ristvedt | 0-2 | 2-2 | 2 |
| Sheplee | 1-1 | 0-0 | 3 |
| Reinke | 4-9 | 9-10 | 17 |
| Walker | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Totals | 24-62 | 23-30 | 77 |
| South Dakota St. (92) | |||
| Estling | 6-11 | 2-4 | 14 |
| Cone | 2-9 | 0-1 | 5 |
| Fischer | 2-9 | 3-3 | 7 |
| Cress | 3-4 | 0-0 | 9 |
| Hansen | 7-13 | 1-2 | 20 |
| Johnson | 1-3 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Stoebner | 6-10 | 2-4 | 15 |
| Schantz | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Volmer | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Cerveny | 7-13 | 4-6 | 18 |
| Totals | 35-85 | 15-24 | 92 |
Halftime–SDSU 47, UND 29.
3-Point goals–UND 6-20 (Jacobson 3-5, Mustard 0-0, Behrens 1-2, Larson 0-5, Travis 1-3 Sheplee 1-1, Walker 0-1, Risvedt 2-2, Reinke 0-2), SDSU 7-16 (Estling 0-0, Cone 1-1, Fischer 0-0, Cress 0-1, Hansen 5-8, Johnson 0-1, Stoebner 1-3, Schantz 0-2, Volmer 0-0, Jeske 0-0, Cerveny 0-0).
Fouled out–None.
Rebounds–UND 44 (Behrens 12), SDSU 53 (Estling 9).
Assists–UND 11 (Larson 4), SDSU 20 (Cress 5).
Total fouls–UND 19, SDSU 24.
A–6,104.