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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – SDSU junior guard Nate Wolters turned in 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists as the Jackrabbits eliminated IUPUI from The Summit League Tournament with a 77-56 win in front of 6,614 fans inside Sioux Falls Arena on Saturday (Mar. 3) night.
 
IUPUI (14-18) sophomore Ian Chiles led four Jaguars in double-digits with 15 points and four assists and junior Sean Esposito added 11 points off the bench. Seniors Stephen Thomas and Alex Young both finished with 10 points each in the loss.
 
With the win, SDSU (25-7) completed a three-game sweep of the Jaguars this season as IUPUI was eliminated in the opening round for just the second time in school history.
 
IUPUI endured an early knockout attempt as South Dakota State blasted out to a 13-4 lead behind a decidedly SDSU dominated crowd. However, the Jaguars showed some moxie and fired back with an 8-0 run starting with a Christian Siakam layup and capped by a Young three-point play. Despite holding the Jackrabbits scoreless for nearly five minutes, the Jaguars were never able to get over the hump as Tony Fiegen started a 7-0 run with five quick points before Wolters capped the burst with a tip-in of his own miss.

"We didn't get much traction coming out of the gates and that's something, when you're on the road, you try to avoid," IUPUI head coach Todd Howard said. "That made it tough. The uphill climb made it tough.

"This would've been a definite feather in their cap and I thought we were playing well enough to come in here and do something. But sometimes it's not your night and you've got to give them credit. We just couldn't get out of that hole."

As the pace of the game quickened, SDSU started to create some distance, thanks largely to shooting better than 56 percent from the field in both halves. Thomas cut the Jacks' lead back to seven at 31-24 with a three at the 5:10 mark before halftime, but SDSU promptly scored four straight points and later held a 40-28 lead at the break. 

IUPUI scored the first bucket of the second half on a Lyonell Gaines layup to cut the SDSU lead back to 10, but the Jaguars' next basket didn't come for nearly three minutes as the Jacks extended out to a 16-point lead. The Jaguars got no closer than 13 the rest of the night.

The Jaguars shot just 43.4 percent from the floor and 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from three. IUPUI also hit all four of its free throw attempts, but was outscored 13-4 at the charity stripe.

Chiles was 7-of-16 overall and collected three steals as he led the Jaguars in scoring for the third time this season. Esposito was 4-of-7 off the bench, including hitting 3-of-6 from behind the arc. Thomas finished with an efficient 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting while Young's final collegiate game saw him make just 3-of-14 attempts from the floor and 1-of-5 from three. Young did grab a team-high six boards and matched his season-high with six assists, five of which came in the first half.

"They were able to get hot early so they were able to load up on him [Young]," Howard said. "He was trying to make something happen a lot of the time. There are errors of commission and errors of omission and his were errors of commission. He was just trying to make a play as a senior does in March."

The 6-foot-6 lefty closed his IUPUI career with 2,286 points, ranking third on the school's all-time list behind Carlos Knox and Aldray Gibson and fourth in Summit League history. Saturday was his 111th career double-digit scoring game and he also finishes as IUPUI's fifth all-time leading rebounder with 668.

"It's disappointing but I'm thankful," Young said. "I've had the chance to play in a championship and I've won some games in the tournament. Every senior wants to go out on top, so in a sense it's disappointing but I'm proud of my four years at IUPUI and I definitely look at it as a success. You just gotta roll with the punches and hope for the best next time."

"I'm proud of our guys," Howard said. "Specifically of the seniors with Alex (Young) and Christian (Siakam) and Steph (Thomas). They played at a high level and were phenomenal leaders."

Thomas, who played two seasons after transferring in from Dayton, finished with more than 700 career points as a two-year starter in the backcourt. Siakam, who was limited by an injury on Saturday night, ended his four-year career as a two-year starter and finishes among the program's top rebounders.

Brayden Carlson finished Saturday's win with 12 points and four assists for SDSU while Fiegen added 11 points, seven boards and four assists. Taevaunn Prince pumped in 10 points in just 18 minutes off the bench as SDSU had 18 assists on 30 baskets.