by South Dakota State men’s basketball cruised past Mount Marty 93-50 in its home opener Monday night at Frost Arena.
The Jacks shot 58.7 percent from the field, outscored the Lancers 60-14 in the paint and dominated the glass, claiming a 51-20 rebound advantage.
Matt Dentlinger led all scorers with 21 points and added eight rebounds for the Jacks. David Wingett (Winnebago) and Luke Appel both scored 16 points with Appel grabbing six rebounds. Baylor Scheierman notched his fifth double-double of the season, tallying 12 points and 14 rebounds, while Charlie Easley scored nine points and corralled eight rebounds.
“Good to get back on the court and be in front of some of our fans –– obviously not as many as we’re used to –– but to be able to play on Frost Arena is pretty special,” head coach Eric Henderson said. “[Frost Arena] has been so good to us, especially for guys like Luke and Charlie who have never played a game in Frost. I’m really happy for them and obviously it’s not quite the atmosphere that it’s going to be or was, but we’ll take it anytime we can play here. Certainly happy with how our guys responded in the second half, especially defensively and really, I thought, respected the game and played it the right way to finish it up.”
Mount Marty made four of its first seven attempts, all 3-pointers, to take a 12-9 edge in the opening five minutes. A Jackrabbit run of eight unanswered gave SDSU the lead for good, with Dentlinger proving to be the spark. He scored 10 of the first 21 Jackrabbit points as State built up a 21-16 lead with 10:43 in the half.
The Jacks took control, outscoring the Lancers 14-6 over the next six minutes, and led 36-22 with 4:19 in the first. Mount Marty followed with a 7-0 run to get back within seven, but Dentlinger scored the half’s final four points and the Jacks led 42-31 at the break.
SDSU opened the floodgates in the second half. Wingett scored the first nine Jackrabbit points out of the break to put State up 51-33 at the 15:34 mark. The Jacks sealed the game with a 26-4 run and Willie Mfum’s thunderous fastbreak slam with 20 seconds left provided an exclamation point.
