Mastodon Men Face Jackrabbits in Summit Semifinals

PREGAME NOTES

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - After topping the Oakland Grizzlies by 19 in the Summit League Quarterfinals on Sunday night, the IPFW Mastodons return to action to face off against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the first semifinal game of the evening.

Opponent: South Dakota State Jackrabbits (23-9)
When: Monday, March 11, 2013 | 7 p.m. EST
Where: Sioux Falls, S.D. | Sioux Falls Arena
Radio: WKJG ESPN Radio 1380 AM | Kent Hormann, play-by-play; Jeff Parrish, analyst
Television: Midco Sports Network / Fox College Sports Atlantic | Tom Nieman, play-by-play; Brad Newitt, analyst
Live Stats: The Summit League

SCOUTING THE JACKRABBITS

South Dakota State, at 23-9 on the season, advance to the Summit League semifinal as the league's top seed. The squad advanced to the semifinal round with a 66-49 win over the IUPUI Jaguars in which the 'Jacks uses an 8-0 run midway through the second half to pull away in the win.

Nate Wolters scored 20 points for SDSU, hitting 7-of-15 shots from the field, while Tony Fiegen and Jordan Dykstra each added 15. Fiegen pulled down 10 rebounds for the double-double, with Wolters dishing out four assists and adding a trio of steals.

On the season, South Dakota State is led by Wolters, the league Player of the Year, who leads the conference in scoring at 22.7 points per game, while Dykstra averages 12.4 and Chad White 10.0. Tony Fiegen is just off of the pace averaging 9.9, with Brayden Carlson not far behind at 8.8 points per game.

Dykstra pulls down 7.9 rebounds per contest, with Wolters and Fiegen each grabbing 5.6. Wolters has dished out 169 assists, more than double the second-highest total on the team, Carlson's 80. Dykstra has a team-high 19 blocks, with Wolters picking up 52 steals.

TWICE AS NICE AWARD

When Frank Gaines was named to the All-League First Team on Thursday, he became the first player in IPFW's Summit League era to be named to the First Team twice in his career. The last time an IPFW player was named First Team All-League in two different seasons was in 1991-92 and 1992-93 when Sean Gibson was twice named First Team All-League in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE JACKRABBITS

The IPFW Mastodons battled with Summit League-leading South Dakota State for the entire game, leading by three with two and a half minutes left in the game, but the Jackrabbits pulled away late behind a Division I season-high 53 points from Nate Wolters in an 80-74 SDSU win.

Frank Gaines put together his third straight 25+ point effort with 29 points, hitting 11-of-22 shots from the field and 5-of-8 from long range, while Luis Jacobo scored 14. Mario Hines pulled down 11 rebounds, as the Mastodons out-rebounded the Jackrabbits 37-to-29 in the game. Pierre Bland dished out a game-high five assists, with Gaines grabbing a pair of steals.

IPFW (10-15, 3-8 Summit) jumped ahead early, and led for nearly the entire first half, as the 'Dons pushed the lead to 10 with seven minutes left in the first half on a Gaines three-point basket. The Mastodon advantage reached as many as 11 in the first half after a lay-in from Hines.

The Mastodons pushed the lead back to 11 with 13 seconds left in the half with another Gaines triple, before Wolters drained a long range shot for South Dakota State (19-6, 10-2 Summit) with four seconds left in the half, setting the stage for his big second half.

South Dakota State struck first in the second half, cutting the gap to six, before Jacobo hit a jumper and Joe Edwards a three-point basket to re-introduce an 11-point margin. Wolters and Gaines traded lay-ins to keep the IPFW advantage at 11 at 44-33.

The Jackrabbits followed by scoring the next seven points, five of those from Wolters, to close to within four. A jumper by Edwards, a free throw from Joe Reed and a dunk from Gaines pushed the margin to nine. Leading by eight with 12:03 to play, SDSU out-scored IPFW 10-2 over the next three minutes to knot the score at 52 apiece.

Tied for the first time since early in the contest, Wolters erupted of the game's final 10 minutes, scoring 27 of his team's final 31 points, making 7-of-8 shots from the field, 5-of-6 on 3's, and 8-of-8 on charity stripe attempts over the last 10 minutes of the game.

Despite the gaudy offensive numbers from Wolters, the Mastodons stuck in the game, as every shot by SDSU was countered by one of IPFW, as there were a combined six tie scores over the final nine minutes of the contest. IPFW took leads on a lay-in from Bland, a lay-in by Gaines, a three-pointer by Michael Kibiloski, two free throws from Jacobo, another Gaines lay-in, and a tip-in by Hines each giving IPFW a lead, but each time the Jackrabbits countered with a tying score.

IPFW led by as many as three late after the Hines tip-in with 2:38 to play, and trailed by one with 1:27 to play after a Gaines free throw, but Wolters followed with his fifth three-pointer in the final nine minutes to push the margin to four, as the visitors converted 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to ice the game in an 80-74 SDSU win.

Wolters ended the game hitting 17-of-28 shots from the field, 9-of-14 from long range, and 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. Tony Fiegen was the only other Jackrabbit player to reach double figures with 11 points, while Taevaunn Prince scored five.

His 53 points are a new single-game South Dakota State record, and the third-most ever scored by a Summit League student-athlete.

IPFW hit 28-of-57 shots from the field, and 9-of-20 from long range in the losing effort, while dishing out 14 assists against just 13 turnovers.

IPFW IN THE SUMMIT LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

In this, IPFW's sixth trip to the Summit League Tournament, three times the squad advanced past the quarterfinal round, including in 2008, the Mastodons' first season in the League.

WE'RE GOING THROUGH THE QUAD, AND INTO THE GYMNASIUM

As the actor Will Ferrell so graciously screamed in the movie Old School, “We're going streaking”, IPFW's current six game win streak is tied for the longest win streak for the program since 1992-93, as the 2010-11 team won six games in a row in the early portion of the season. The school-record for longest win streak in one season is 11, set in 1989-90; however the longest overall win streak is 12, set over the last two games of 1988-89 and the first 10 of 1989-90.

QUALITY TOURNAMENT MARKS

In IPFW's win over Oakland, the program accomplished some hefty marks in the game. It was the only first-round seeded upset in the field, and IPFW's 12 made three-pointers tied for the fourth-highest total in Summit League Tournament history. The 19-point win was the largest in a 4/5 match-up since 1999, and was IPFW's largest margin of victory in Summit League Tournament history.

Additionally, the team shot over 60 percent from the field, the first time since 2009 that has happened in the tournament, and shot over 60 percent from long range, a tournament first since 2007.

SCORING GAINES

On Saturday, February 23, the IPFW Mastodons crowned a new career scoring leader, as Frank Gaines pushed past Sean Gibson into the top spot all-time. His 1,816 points are currently 51 points higher than the previous record.

~ Feel the Rumble ~

Purdue University Fort Wayne Athletics

Mastodon Men Face Jackrabbits in Summit Semifinals

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