SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—South Dakota State senior guard Michael Orris hit a 17-foot jumper with 1.5 seconds remaining to give the Jackrabbits their first lead since the first minute of the game en route to a 74-71 win over top-seeded South Dakota in the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament Monday at the Sanford PREMIER Center.
 
Orris tied his career high of 20 points in front of a record crowd of 11,235 and was clearly the difference for the fourth-seeded Jackrabbits (17-16) as they overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to reach the championship game for the second consecutive season. They will face the winner of No. 3 Omaha and No. 7 IUPUI in Tuesday's 8 p.m. final.
 
South Dakota (22-11) led by 16 points in the first half and by 13 points, 56-43, with 13 minutes to go, but fell one defensive stop short from reaching their first title game. The Coyotes made 2 of 7 from the free-throw line in the second half and missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 13 seconds to go and a 71-70 lead.
 
Orris, who averages fewer than eight points per game, led the Jacks in scoring for the fourth time this season. He single-handedly kept SDSU in the game in the first half where he had 15 points on 5 of 8 shooting. He hit two 3-pointers after entering the game with four. Quite simply, it was his night.

"We knew Orris was going to be a huge key tonight," said USD head coach Craig Smith. "He had 15 at halftime. In hindsight, you have to give that kid credit. We were really sagging off of him, (Chris) Howell and (Tevin) King. We had (Carlton) Hurst down there and (Mike) Daum gets deep position so (Carlton) was sitting back, sitting back, trying to take away the post feed like we had been doing all night, and he takes the shot. We have to give that kid the credit for making that shot in that situation."
 
Matt Mooney tied his career high of 30 points to lead South Dakota, including a cold-blooded step-back 3 from the corner with 32.7 seconds left that broke a 68-68 tie.  He did the same thing two nights ago at the end of regulation against Western Illinois, but the Leathernecks tied it with a 3. Tonight, it was SDSU forward Mike Daum's two free throws with 24.3 seconds left, the missed 1-and-1, and Orris' jumper that spoiled Mooney's heroics.
 
Mooney was 12 of 24 from the field and had half of USD's six 3-pointers. He passed Jack Theeler for eighth place on the Coyotes' single-season scoring list with 611. He added four more steals for 72 this year, fourth-most in program history. Mooney, just a sophomore, totaled 57 points in his first two tournament games in Sioux Falls.

"I don't know what the attendance was, but your could feel it," said Smith. "You could feel the electricity. You could feel the spirit and atmosphere in the arena and you could feel it from both sides. It was everything that it was billed up to be."
 
South Dakota also got 10 points from Trey Dickerson, all in the first half, and nine more from Tyler Flack. Flack also "limited" Daum, the nation's second-leading scorer, to 18 points on 5 of 14 shooting. Daum was 0 for 6 from downtown, but made 8 of 11 from the free-throw line. The Jacks were 22 of 28 from the stripe compared to 9 of 15 for South Dakota.

"I thought Tyler did a great job on him and our team did with some screen-roll coverages as he didn't hit a three tonight," said Smith. "(Reed) Tellinghuisen, who had eight three's at our place, goes 1-for-6 tonight.

"It was a physical game, but we didn't get to the line like we usually do. We are seventh in the country in getting fouled and we only shot 15 tonight. That was a big thing we talked about with our team in that we have to own the paint and own the free-throw line. They shoot twice as many free throws."

South Dakota led 22-6 at the midpoint of the first half. The Coyotes were 8 of 18 from the field at that point while  SDSU was 3 of 14. Daum's first point didn't come until the 7:27 mark of the first half.
 
Orris picked up the slack early, but it was another guard, sophomore Chris Howell, who powered the comeback in the second half. He scored all of his 11 points after the break. Mooney hit a 3 with 2:23 left that gave South Dakota a 68-65 lead, but Howell got two back with a bucket in the paint on the next possession and added a free throw with 1:33 left that tied the game at 68-68.
 
Flack, playing in his 100th game as a Coyote, gave USD its largest lead of the second half with a bucket that made it 56-43 with 13:23 to go. SDSU quickly countered with nine straight points from four different players and USD's lead was never greater than six the rest of the way. Mooney, Tyler Hagedorn and Carlton Hurst combined to score the final 15 points for USD over the final 13 minutes.
 
The loss means South Dakota is headed to the 32-team NIT. The Coyotes earned an automatic bid to that tournament by winning the Summit League's regular season crown. USD will learn its first-round opponent Sunday evening.

"I love these guys," said Smith. "These guys were so fun to coach. From where we came from, from Spain to now is pretty incredible. That's the end of hte chapter for this year for getting to the NCAA Tournament, but our season isn't done and we are proud to represent the Summit League in the NIT."

Post-Game Quotes

Tyler Flack on competing against Daum… 
"That was a really fun match up for us. We both had our work cut out for us. That was my biggest thing going into this game. I knew I had to stop this guy, who's the second-leading scorer in the nation. I just tried my best to make it tough for him, get shots off, that was my focus on the game. He did a good job on me as well. He's an underrated defender I think. I think their whole team played really good defense tonight."
 
Matt Mooney on the record crowd and the atmosphere... 
"Even our first game was really fun to play in. We really appreciate the fans coming out. This program is moving in the right direction. Coach Smith has it going in the right direction. I promise you this – we will be back next year. If a loss like this doesn't inspire you to work your tail off, I don't know what will. We got the right guys in the locker room and the right coaching staff. We're going to work so hard because we don't want this feeling again and we don't want this taste in our mouth again. We're going to be back."
 
Mooney on the NIT…
"We still have the NIT bid. That's the second-best postseason tournament in the country and we'll face some really tough opponents. So as tough it is, we just have to move forward and focus on the next opponent.
 
Tyler on the NIT… 
"It's going to be tough. A loss like this really hurts. It hurts our whole team a lot. But we're going to get back to work. We're just going to move on and focus on our next opponent in the NIT. The next goal is to improve and win in the NIT."
 
Matt on the USD women's 2016 WNIT championship run serving as inspiration… 
"It was really cool to witness last year and really special for the women to end their season on the win. Only a couple of teams can say they did that. It's hard to talk about right now, I feel really bad for this guy sitting to my left. He won't get another chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. But you have the 68 in the NCAA and the next 32 are in the NIT. A lot of teams don't get to play in the postseason and we're fortunate to be able to."