JAMESTOWN — The No. 2-ranked University of Jamestown men’s basketball team did enough in the second half to get a 76-69 win over No. 6-seeded Dakota State University (South Dakota) in the North Star Athletic Association semifinals on Saturday, March 1, at Harold Newman Arena.

The first 10 minutes of the opening half were incredibly competitive with there being three ties and six lead changes. After the teams were tied at 20, there was a media timeout, the Trojans quickly took a 21-20 lead but the Jimmies (17-10) responded with a bucket to take a 23-21 lead, and they were able to stretch it out to a 28-23 lead. The Trojans trimmed the deficit 33-30 but the Jimmies responded to head into the break up 36-34.

Both teams struggled shooting from three in the first 20 minutes of the game with the hosts making five of their 13 attempts while the Trojans (12-17) made three of their 12. The two teams could not miss from the field as a whole though as the Jimmies shot 45.5% and the Trojans 53.6%. The rebounding battle headed into the break in a tie with the teams each grabbing 16 total rebounds.

The Trojans flew out of the gates in the second half with a quick run to take a 38-36 lead, drawing a Jimmies timeout less than 30 seconds into the half.

“We did not start off very well in the second half and we had to make sure that we had the right attention to detail and the right urgency because a team like Dakota State, they’re too good,” Jimmies head coach Casey Bruggeman said. “If you let them get on an 8-0 run that’ll probably be the difference in the game so proud of how our guys responded coming out of that timeout and they made some plays in the second half for sure.”

The Jimmies responded to take a 40-38 lead before the Trojans once again tied the game up at 40. A few possessions later, the Jimmies had a huge momentum play when Silas Bennion hit a jumper and drew the whistle to tie the game up at 44 and then they drew a charge and Bennion hit another shot to push his team in front 46-44. The teams continued to fight from there with the Trojans taking a 52-50 lead. The Jimmies responded to take a 54-52 lead and they never trailed again with one of the most exciting baskets coming from Bennion when he hit a floater while he was off balancing and falling to the floor to push the lead out to 71-64. From there the Jimmies were able to ice the game at the line to book their spot in the conference title game.

“I did not think it was going in, I know that,” Bennion said with a laugh. “I was just trying to get it up there to hit the rim but yeah, I looked up on the ground and I was like, ‘dang that was wild.’”

The Jimmies are back in action on Tuesday, March 4, when they go to Dickinson State with the time still to be determined.

“They’ve gotten us three times this year, two of them were really competitive and close games and then when we went out there it was a challenge for us, they got hot from there and we didn’t respond real well,” Bruggeman said. “I think Dickinson poses challenges because of their depth and their experience. They’ve played together a long time and you can see that they’ve been the best team in the regular season so far. We’re really excited to have another chance though to compete against them and see how we do on Tuesday.”

DSU 69, UJ 76

DSU: 34 35–69

UJ: 36 40–76

Points leaders:

DSU: Lane Tietz 13, Tyler Beckwith 13, Taine Mitchell 12, Aiden Jensen 12, Colby Dillenbeck 7

UJ: Silas Bennion 24, Anthony Walters 16, Jimmy Llinas 10

Assists leaders:

DSU: Tietz 5, Brayden Pankonen 2, Mitchell 1, Jensen 1

UJ: Cole Glasgow 7, Bennion 3, Carson Woodford 3, Will Cordes 2

Leading rebounders:

DSU: Beckwith 9, Lukas Morgan 7, Pankonen 6, Mitchell 6, Jensen 4

UJ: Llinas 10, Owen Hektner 6, Cordes 4, Walters 4, Spencer Barr 2, Woodford 2, Bennion 1, Glasgow 1

Hello,
My name is Max O’Neill. I am a Sports Reporter at The Jamestown Sun. I am a native New Yorker, who graduated from Ithaca College in 2020 with a degree in Television-Radio.