South Dakota State got 23 points from Nate Wolters, 21 from Jordan Dykstra and ended the first half on an 18-0 run in an 77-61 win at Kansas City on Thursday night in Summit League action.
“What I saw in the first half is what I thought I would be seeing most of this year, that’s what I wanted to see us do; get stops, run, shoot the ball freely” head coach Scott Nagy said. “It was just a lot of fun to watch quite frankly, but the reason we were good is because we were good defensively.”
The Jackrabbits, playing their fifth of six in a row on the road, improve to 11-5 overall and to 2-1 in The Summit League, while the Kangaroos’ seventh straight loss drops them to 4-11 overall and to 1-3 in the league.
The Jackrabbits scored the first five points of the second half to push the run to 23-0 more than enough to overcome the Kangaroos 55.6 percent shooting percentage in the second half, 15-of-27.
SDSU shot 50.9 percent for the game, 29-of-57, making a season-high 12 3-point shots in the process on 27 attempts, 44.4 percent.
Seven different Jackrabbits scored, led by Wolters and his 23 points. He also added six rebounds and a game-high seven assists. Dykstra went 5-for-9 from long range and 7-of-13 overall to get his 21 points. Chad White added 14 points in the win.
Thomas Staton led a trio of Kangaraoos in double figures with 14 points. Nelson Kirksey added 12 and Estan Tyler 10 points in the loss.
The Jackrabbits look to make it two in a row on Saturday, when they travel to Vermillion to take on South Dakota in the South Dakota Showdown Series presented by South Dakota Corn. The Jackrabbits and Coyotes tipoff at 4:05 p.m.
Courtesy: Ryan Sweeter, SDSU
