SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—David Jenkins scored 29 points and Mike Daum added 25 in leading top-seeded South Dakota State to a 97-87 win against second-seeded South Dakota in front of a Summit League Tournament championship game record 11,114 fans inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
 
The Jackrabbits (28-6), which have won 11 consecutive games since losing to South Dakota in Vermillion, won their fifth Summit League Tournament title and will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Coyotes (26-8), playing in the title game for the first time, lost for just the second time in their last 10 games. Both losses were to SDSU.
 
The Jacks got it done by shooting 48 percent from the field including a 14-of-28 effort from 3-point range. They finished one triple shy of the tournament's single-game record. Daum was 5-of-11 from downtown, Jenkins was 3-of-5, and Reed Tellinghuisen made 3-of-6 en route to 18 points.
 
The Coyotes were led by all-conference guard Matt Mooney's 30 points. It was his fifth 30-point effort of the season. Tyler Hagedorn and Tyler Peterson added 15 points apiece. The Coyotes shot 38 percent from the field and were 11-of-29 from beyond the arc. USD's 11 3's tied its season high.
 
The turning point of the game came ironically when Daum picked up his second foul at the 11:11 mark of the first half and was sent to the bench. He had hit two 3's by that point but the Coyotes held an 18-17 lead. The Jacks, led by Jenkins and Tellinghuisen, outscored the Coyotes 30-17 with Daum on the bench and took a 47-35 lead into the break.
 
SDSU made eight 3's and 18 of 36 shots in the first half. Jenkins made 6 of 9 shots and had 16 points. The Jacks also committed just two turnovers in the half.
 
SDSU extended its lead to 57-37 four minutes into the second half. It took an 8-0 run highlighted by bookend 3's by Peterson and Hagedorn to get the lead under 10 at 80-72 with 5:27 remaining. Two free throws by Mooney cut the deficit to 83-77 with 3:55 left. Daum answered with a bucket the other way and Jenkins hit a dagger 3 with 1:41 left that made it 90-79.
 
Daum was named tournament MVP, but it was his teammates who starred in this one. In addition to Jenkins and Tellinghuisen, the Jacks got 10 points and six assists off the bench from Brandon Key and five points from Lane Severyn.
 
Nick Fuller had nine points in 16 minutes off South Dakota's bench. Trey Burch-Manning scored nine points and had seven rebounds. No other Coyote had more than four points.
 
Mooney has scored 615 points this season which is eighth-most in program single-season history. The Coyotes' 2,755 points scored this year is a program record.
 
Summit League All-Tournament Team
Jon Konchar, Fort Wayne
Paul Miller, North Dakota State
Mike Daum, South Dakota State (MVP)
Matt Mooney, South Dakota
David Jenkins, South Dakota State

Quotable

Craig Smith 
I'm really proud of this team. This game doesn't define us. We've had a historic season, we've done some great things in terms of the basketball part, 26 wins and our road wins are top-15 in the country. I can't tell you how proud I am of this team. I have been coaching for 22 years and these guys are… genuinely, there's not a guy on the team that I don't love to coach. I wish people could be as fortunate as I am to be around these guys every single day. We'll bounce back from this and just keep getting better.

They (Jackrabbits) were clicking on all cylinders and we were very average defensively tonight. A lot of that was them, and some of that was us. I thought (SDSU) did a good job. They started spacing us out and driving on us. We went small ball for a while then put (Hagedorn) back in. He then had a very good second half. They were doing some actions, and we were inconsistent with our switches and they were direct driving us to the rim.

We gave ourselves a chance. We made some changes offensively that helped, some of the same stuff we did that helped us at Frost, and we started scoring left and right. But they kept scoring, we were pressing and they handled our press. Then we were able to cut it to six points.

They are a very good team. We're a very good team. I said it last night, may the best team win. And they beat us tonight. We tip our hat to them.

Tyler Hagedorn on second half comeback
We really pride ourselves on defense and that really feeds into our offense. Once we started to slow them down and get stops in the half court, we were able to get out in transition and get open 3s.
 
Tyler Hagedorn on bouncing back
We would love to play more basketball, although we know it won't be the NCAA Tournament. We just have to cherish every moment we get to play with the seniors. We have four seniors that mean so much to our team. To be able to have another practice or another game would be amazing.