Box Score  I Box Score (.html) I Box Score (.pdf) I Photo Gallery I Video Highlights I Postgame Press Conference I Greg Rice Postgame

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Summit League Player of the Year Nate Wolters scored a game-high 20 points and top-seeded South Dakota State survived a first-round scare from the Jaguars en route to a 66-49 outcome in the quarterfinals round of the league tournament on Saturday (Mar. 9) night.

Junior Mitchell Patton led the Jaguars with 17 points and Donovan Gibbs added 10 points and nine boards in the loss.

"We played well against them in minor stretches this season," IUPUI Head Coach Todd Howard said. "The game just got too long. We thought we needed to shrink the game. Really, our formula was about pieces of the pie: poise, rebounding, defending and being confident. I thought most of the game, we were pretty prevalent and successful in three phases of those and the ball didn't bounce our way a few times.

"That has been the story of our year."

IUPUI got the start it wanted, taking an early 5-0 lead on a P.J. Hubert three and a Patton putback, but later SDSU (23-9) countered with a 15-0 run over the next 7:36. Patton went to the bench at the 13:40 mark with his second personal foul, making the already thin Jaguars' even more vulnerable up front. Forced to go small, SDSU had its way on the interior behind Jordan Dykstra and Tony Fiegen until Greg Rice finally stopped the bleeding with an 18-footer.

IUPUI (6-26) trailed by as many as 11 at 20-9 midway through the half, but rallied behind Patton and Sean Esposito to close within 31-27 at the break. The duo of Esposito and Patton teamed to score the Jaguars' final 16 points of the half with the former pumping in a pair of treys and the latter getting loose for three interior buckets and four makes at the foul line.

The Jaguars crept within two at 33-31 with 17:33 to play when Rice hit a tough 14-foot pull-up jumper, but IUPUI was never able to get fully over the hump. The sledding got increasingly tougher when Patton went to the sidelines with his fourth personal with more than 13 minutes to play. With Patton on the bench, the tournament's top seed finally delivered a knockout blow, fueled by Wolters.

IUPUI trailed 40-35 when Patton went to the bench, and immediately saw SDSU rattle off a 13-4 run to take a 53-39 lead with 8:37 to play. Wolters scored nine points during the run, capped by a steal and fast break layup, energizing the partisan crowd of 6,704 and prompting Howard to call timeout. The slick point guard continually drove into the teeth of the Jaguars' defense, either drawing whistles or finishing at the rim as the Jackrabbits made a concerted effort to score on the interior.

For the game, SDSU outscored the Jaguars 30-12 in the paint as both Dykstra and Fiegen finished with 15 each. The duo combined to hit 13-of-22 shots and collect 16 rebounds as the Jacks won the glass, 30-22.

SDSU shot 60 percent from the field after halftime and finished the game at 51 percent while attempting just nine treys. IUPUI shot a respectable 47.6 percent from the floor, but was just 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from deep.

Patton was effective offensively in 28 foul plagued minutes, hitting 6-of-12 shots. However, the Jaguars struggled to score with the team's leading scorer on the sidelines for prolonged stretches.

"Tonight, I tried to make my moves quick and tried to get to the middle every time I could," Patton said. "It was getting real physical down there; the refs were letting us play.

However, two whistles went against Patton in just more than two minutes, taking him from two to four fouls.

"That was tough," Patton said. "I thought I was there, personally, but obviously the refs thought differently. It's tough when you look up and it was a five-point game at that point and you know you're right there. I have confident in all my teammates coming in for me that they can do just as well as me."

Gibbs was 5-of-7 from the floor in a full 40 minutes and Hubert chipped in eight points. Esposito chipped in six points in his final collegiate game and Rice added six points, three boards and a pair of assists in his finale.

The loss dropped IUPUI to 16-12 in tournament games and 3-5 in the five seasons at Sioux Falls Arena. The Jaguars also slid to 6-8 all-time against SDSU and 0-2 against the Jackrabbits in the postseason.

Patton finished his junior year averaging a team-high 13.7 points per game while Gibbs closed the year at 10.2 points and a team-high 6.5 boards per contest. IUPUI closed the season having lost 16 straight, but graduates just three seniors off this year's squad. The roster is expected to be bolstered by the healthy returns of Ian Chiles and Marcellus Barksdale, along with the addition of Milwaukee-transfer Ja'Rob McCallum. Chiles was limited to just four games this season after suffering an injury in the preseason opener. Barksdale played in seven games, but had his season end just before Christmas due to an injury.

This year's freshman trio of Cortell Busby, Elijay Ray and Linwood Ross, Jr. all redshirted the year and will be joined by 6-foot-8 Justus Stanback and 6-foot-9 Josh James next season.