South Dakota State Rallies to Beat Fort Wayne

South Dakota State survived a miserable start at home Saturday to go to 2-0 in summit League play with a 77-60 win over Fort Wayne at Frost Arena.

It's hard to imagine the Jacks having a worse start to a basketball game.  All SDSU had to show after the first seven and a half minutes were seven missed shots from the floor and six turnovers, and Fort Wayne took advantage, reeling off 14 straight points to start the game.

Megan Stuart finally snapped the drought with a layin, and that seemed to jump start the Jackrabbit offense, who came roaring back with 14 straight of their own.

When the buzzer sounded at intermission, SDSU was red hot, hitting 13 of their last 19 shots of the half (68%) to open up a 32-25 lead after 20 minutes.

The Jackrabbit bench carried a lot of the load in the first half with 19 points, led by Kerri Young's 7.

In the second half, SDSU came out as hot as they finished the first, hitting 8 of their first 12 shots to quickly open up a 20-point lead and the rout was on.

Young was one of three Jacks in double figures. She had 18, Megan Stuart had 16, Tara Heiser 11 - all off the bench, as SDSU reserves scored 51 of the team's 77 points.

Summit League pre-season player of the year Amanda Hyde had 26 on 8-of-12 shooting to lead the Mastodons, but go little help from her teammates who made just 26% of their shots.

The Jacks (11-7/2-0) play at Western Illinois and Omaha in week two of Summit League action next Thursday and Saturday.