Summit League tournament: St. Thomas men run away from South Dakota State in second half

Mar. 5—SIOUX FALLS — Second-seeded St. Thomas eliminated 7th-seeded South Dakota State in the quarterfinals of the Summit League tournament in Thursday's late game, defeating the Jackrabbits 80-67 at the Premier Center.

It was the Tommies' third win over SDSU this season, as they improve to 24-8 in their first season being eligible for the NCAA tournament.

The Jackrabbits end their season at 14-18, their first losing season since 2009-10.

SDSU played inspired basketball for most of the first half, going up by seven at one point and bringing the blue-and-yellow crowd of 6,614 into the game, but they started losing their grip just before halftime and watched the Tommies pull away in the second.

Nolan Minessale was the catalyst for St. Thomas, finishing with 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists while Ben Oosterbaan had a career-high 23 points and Nick Janowski 10.

The Jacks certainly came to play in the first half. They started fast and attacked the basket, getting the crowd involved almost immediately. A Kalen Garry 3-pointer gave SDSU a 24-17 lead, but Minessale answered with back-to-back 3s to cut that lead to one.

The Jacks were back up 35-30 late in the half, only for the Tommies to go on a 9-0 run before a pair of Joe Sayler free throws got the Jacks within a basket at the half at 39-37.

That seemed to take away some of the momentum the Rabbits had built in the first half, and sure enough they were cold to start the second and St. Thomas quickly had their biggest lead to that point at 47-39. When Minessale hit a 3 with 13:29 to play that put the Tommies up 52-41, the Jacks were up against it. They missed 13 of their first 14 shots in the second half, and their first 10 from 3-point range.

Jaden Jackson led SDSU with 16 points. Joe Sayler and Damon Wilkinson had 13 each while Matthew Mors finished with nine points and five rebounds in his final game.