South Dakota State basketball rolls past Nevada in Crossover Classic at Sanford Pentagon

The Nevada Wolf Pack ran into a buzzsaw that was South Dakota State on Monday night, as the Jackrabbits kicked off the Mammoth Sports Construction Crossover Classic with a 102-75 pounding of the pack that ranks among SDSU’s most impressive wins in recent years.

Nevada has now lost four in a row and have been struggling on defense, so it’s not exactly like the Jacks rolled over a power conference contender, but the Wolf Pack were picked third in the Mountain West preseason poll, are coached by college basketball legend Steve Alford, and surely didn’t know what they were getting into when they took the Sanford Pentagon floor against SDSU.

“I have a lot of respect for this team – they are really good,” Alford said of the Rabbits. “By far the best team we’ve played to date. And they made us look bad. That’s the sign of a really good team.”

The Jacks got rolling right away and never looked back. Noah Freidel drilled a trio of trifectas to give the Jacks their first nine points, and within minutes the game was already in danger of getting out of hand as SDSU pushed the lead to 25-7. It was 37-13 when Nevada finally started to compete, and they got within 13 at 40-27, only for Charlie Easley to nail a 3 that pushed the lead right back to 16, and the Wolf Pack never got closer.

The Jacks’ 3-point shooting energized the crowd from the beginning, but they were dominant inside, to, as Doug Wilson had 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting, even with Nevada putting a pair of 7-footers in the starting lineup. SDSU became the first Division I team to score 100 points in regulation at the Pentagon.

“I wouldn’t say (the hot start) was what I was expecting, but we really prepped well for this team,” Wilson said. “I knew we’d come out with the mentality that we’d fight and play hard for 40 minutes. The shooting at the start helped us, and got us fired up but for the most part we just executed our gameplan.”

Freidel had 21 points in 23 minutes off the bench, Baylor Scheierman had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Easley and Zeke Mayo each had 10 points, also off the bench. SDSU (5-1) made 17-of-33 shots (51.5 percent) from long range and 16-of-30 (53 percent) from inside the arc.

Warren Washington had 20 points to lead Nevada (1-4), while Desmond Cambridge had 17 and Will Baker 12. The Wolf Pack shot 39.7 percent from the floor and were 7-of-22 from deep, and while Alford said his team is still searching for an identity, he also gave SDSU plenty of credit for making that hard for them to do.

“I love the way they move the ball,” Alford said of the Jacks. “They’ve got all the pieces. They’ve got guards that can really shoot it and the couple bigs they have that don’t shoot it are just beasts inside. And then I was really impressed with their defense. They’re physical, they’re older and I thought they gave us a lot of problems at both ends.”

The Jacks have won four in a row. Their one loss was to a ranked Alabama squad and will look to pick up a win over a power conference opponent Tuesday when they face Washington in an 8:30 p.m. tip.

“It’s so early in the season,” coach Eric Henderson said. “We played very good tonight. I mean, offensively we were terrific. We had 15 turnovers in the first half but still scored 51 points. We had 25 assists. Those shots aren’t always gonna be falling, though, so we have to stay true to our identity, and our guys willingness to understand that if they don’t have it going there are plenty of other guys that can.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State basketball rolls past Nevada in Crossover Classic at Sanford Pentagon