Dale Moss excelled at basketball for SDSU for four years, capturing gasps of awe from fans with his high energy and emphatic slams at the rim. But left with one final year of collegiate eligibility, Moss has taken the chance to come back to a sport that he’s always loved: football.

Dale Moss has been a basketball star at SDSU and he'll hang around to play football this fall for the Jacks. Moss was an all-state wide receiver at Brandon Valley High School. --Collegian Photo by Kathy Kroeger.

A courtship that began over five years ago when Moss was being recruited separately by both the football and basketball coaches at SDSU will take shape Sept. 3 on the field when the Jacks host Southern Utah in the season opener at 6 p.m. at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

“It was just always something that I wanted to do and during the recruiting process in high school, I was a little bit torn over what to do. I’ve always had a good rapport with the football coaches and I had the year of eligibility left, so I figured why not,” Moss said.

It’s certainly not out of the blue. Moss was a standout two-sport athlete at Brandon Valley High School, achieving all-state accolades in both football and basketball as a senior. He caught 89 passes after joining the football team as a junior at Brandon Valley before attending SDSU.

“Dale’s love in high school was basketball, even though he was an incredible football player,” said Chad Garrow, Moss’ high school football coach at Brandon Valley. “At that time, he was already honed in on college basketball. I always thought he could be a pretty darn good collegiate football player.”

The NCAA allows each student five years of athletic eligibility, as long as they’ve made adequate progress toward their degree.  Because Moss played immediately as a freshman for the men’s basketball team, he still has one year of eligibility in a sport other than basketball.

“We’ve been thinking about Dale for the last five years,” said co-offensive coordinator Luke Meadows, who recruited Moss to play football for the Jacks before he ultimately decided to play college basketball at SDSU.

“When he decided to play basketball, we told him ‘You better play as a true freshman, so you can play in your fifth year.’ Fortunately, it all worked out for us.”

“I talk to Coach Meadows all the time and I told him that I would play football in my fifth year and I just wanted to keep my word there. I’m happy I’m playing now,” Moss said.

Meadows believes that Moss’ athletic ability translates easily to the football field.

“Anyone who has ever seen him play basketball before knows that he is really dynamic and people know about the dunks and the rebounds,” Meadows said.

More explosiveness won’t hurt the Jacks at the wide receiver position. Brandon Hubert, Trevor Tiefenthaler and Aaron Rollin all return after contributing to last year’s young receiving corps and Moss will give SDSU a specific advantage at wideout when it comes to athleticism.

“Our receivers have worked hard this summer and we’re all just trying to compete and battle every day,” Moss said.

“Being able to use him in a one-on-one situation is going to give us an advantage,” Meadows said. “It’s one thing to be able to jump like he can but he can really run and we don’t really have any concerns about throwing the ball up to him on a fade route.”

Garrow says that his athleticism and leaping ability is unquestioned but not to forget about his hands.

“As far as catching, that comes natural to him. We haven’t had a guy with hands like Dale and he’s just a great player and a great kid to have around,” he said.

The 6’4” senior has been on the squad since March and he’s defeated a few of  his critics, including the guy who throws him the ball, SDSU quarterback Thomas O’Brien.

“I think I was probably his biggest skeptic, to be honest, and he’s really proved me wrong,” O’Brien said. “Usually it takes a redshirt year, through the spring and into the following fall to get adjusted and he’s worked really hard. He’s brought a lot of different experiences that he’s had and he’s definitely made a great transition.”

SDSU head football coach John Stiegelmeier said that Moss has been surprising for two reasons: his hard work and dedication to a fifth-year sport.

“Also because of his work ethic and leadership in a group of young men that he really doesn’t know, hasn’t grown up with really says that he’s a special individual.”

As for personal goals, those are high for Moss, as well.

“I want to do whatever I can do to help us win. It’s a high expectation but I really want to be an all-conference wide receiver. I know it’s my first year back, but just based on the plays that I can make and need to make for my teammates, that’s a definite goal for me and I think it is realistic.”

“He will make plays for us, not just because of the passes caught but because of the picture he’s painted for a lot of the players,” Stiegelmeier said.

After all the talk, Moss is ready to play.

“Just the progress that we’ve made individually and as a team and I feel like it’s night and day from where we were when I stepped on the field in the spring. I’m just excited to step on the field and see where things go.”

It looked like a game both teams simultaneously wanted to win and to not lose. And maybe if not for Nate Wolters, IPFW plays Oakland tomorrow night.

But the Jacks hanged on, evading a steady climb back from IPFW, with Wolters sealing it late in the game, exactly when SDSU desperately needed a big performance.

SDSU won 85-72 to clinch a berth in the semi-finals against Oakland despite a marginal offensive effort in the second half and repeated foul trouble. Whenever it looked like the Jacks would unravel their once-enormous lead, the first-team all-conference Wolters toed the free-throw line or sunk a difficult jumper.

They’ll take the win, regardless of the circumstances. The nearly packed Arena – 6,436 fans to be exact – will take it, too.

“They did a great job of lifting us up,” said Jacks senior Dale Moss, who finished with 21 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the field. “We knew if we came out and did what we were supposed to we’d have a big backing, we made a play and fed off the crowd.”

Enthusiasm from Jacks fans was easy to create. The Jacks rushed to a 13-2 lead prompting two quick timeouts and early thoughts of a forthcoming SDSU game tomorrow night. But the Mastodons wouldn’t fade, shortening the lead to 14 by half and appearing, by all means, capable of a comeback.

“Comeback’ appeared the theme of the second half, as well. While the Jacks shot mediocre, IPFW looked elite, shooting 57 percent in the second half and just a couple defensive stops from retaking the lead.

“Very physical game, and we knew it would be,” said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy, now 2-2 in Summit League tournament play. “We made the plays that we needed to make.”

A couple plays stand out. With the shot clock winding down, Wolters dribbled at the top of the key, stood stationary for a few moments, then shot a quick three-pointer that deflected off the rim and in. It pushed SDSU’s lead to nine points and came at a point when the Mastodons momentum radiated so clearly that every member of their team bench stood up in support.

Then there’s Moss, who offered the usual athletic and crowd pleasing performance at times and harnessed rebounds when the Jacks needed a stop and needed another shot clock.

Notice a trend?

IPFW wouldn’t submit ending their season easily. A 6-0 run over only twenty seconds dwindled the lead to four with 24 seconds left. But six made throws – four by Wolters – quelled the Mastodons rally for good.

“We knew they [IPFW] were going to make a run and weren’t going to blow them out,” Wolter said. “When they got it down to four we just kept our composure, that really helped us and we got the win.”

#1.2071524:1044590178.jpg:Dale Moss:Dale Moss drives to the basket against IPFW Sunday. Moss finished with 21 points and nine rebounds in 38 minutes. The Jacks play Oakland at 6 p.m. Monday.:Collegian Photo by Stephen Brua

The most fitting number was on Clint Sargent’s jersey.

Ten.

And from the tip-off, 10 looked like the number NDSU hoped and alley-ooped for and SDSU limped to prevent.

The Bison (14-14, 8-10) smothered every quality of the Jacks (18-11, 10-8) for a 10th straight victory over their conference rival in a lopsided 84-61 game that sealed another SDSU winless season against NDSU in Fargo, N.D. Feb. 25.

No stats can demonstrate the physical and mental braun the Bison seemed to have a handle on SDSU all night, but the Jacks shot a season-worst 33 percent from the field, tallied a season-low five assists and shot 22 percent from three-point range.

NDSU mostly dunked their way out of any trouble.

“Really didn’t expect this,” said guard Nate Wolters. “All of us just struggled, me and Clint [Sargent] go a combined 2-for-23, that’s just terrible – you’re not going to win games likes that.”

And they wouldn’t come close. At one point in the first half, SDSU missed 18 straight shots from the floor while the Bison completed buckets from everywhere on the floor in a 19-0 run that pinned the Jacks down 17 points.

The Jacks, who had nearly every player on the roster see playing time in the first half to find any semblance of rhythm, shot 15 percent in the game’s first 20 minutes while NDSU had as many crowd-pleasing dunks (four) as SDSU had field goals. Eric Carlson’s alley-oop dunk to end the first half was the climax, pushing the Bison lead back to 13 and killing any SDSU momentum.

“This is our 29th game, and even in our losses this is just the one game where we weren’t in it,” said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy. “There can be a million questions why but I don’t have the answer for it.”

Reasonings for such dominance on this particular night is cause for debate, but the conference standings state things should have went differently. The Bison entered losers of eight of their last 12 games and will enter the Summit League tournament as the seven seed while the Jacks had a chance at 20 wins on the way to their best regular season at the D-I level.

SDSU looked uncomfortable from tip-off.

“I knew they’d come out with a lot of energy,” said Wolters, who was the subject of chants from the NDSU student section during the game. “We just haven’t proved we can beat them.”

Not only that, the loss marks the second-consecutive season SDSU enters the Summit League tournament with back-to-back losses. Coincidentally, the Jacks have the same first-round matchup against IPFW, who SDSU lost to the in first round of the tournament last season.

Even with the tournament a full week removed from SDSU’s statistical worst-loss of the season, any momentum entering the four-day event will be generated in practice, not on the game court. Falling behind by 28 point at one point in the second half, the Jacks looked far from conference contenders, but rather victims of closing their most successful regular season at the D-I level in a forgettable way.

“I saw some things out there I didn’t like,” Nagy said.

The third-seeded Jackrabbits will began their run at another NCAA bid Sunday against NDSU.

Technically, it’s a clean slate.

SDSU, however, would be better off if they weren’t starting over.

Winners eight of their last nine games, the Jackrabbits will try to ride their recent momentum to win three-in-a-row when they open the first round of the Summit League Tournament against rival North Dakota State on Sunday in Sioux Falls at 2:30 p.m.

This second-half surge has revitalized a squad that was at one point 4-9 overall and staring at a bottom-division finish in the conference, before coming back to capture the number three seed in this weekend’s tournament.

“They’re playing really well and success has helped them. They’ll feel better about our offense, our defense, about what their capable of but ultimately, what we’ve done in the last few weeks doesn’t guarantee us anything in Sioux Falls,” said Jackrabbit head coach Aaron Johnston.

“I think we’re playing our best basketball that we’ve played all year and I think we’re playing a lot better together. Defensively, we’ve been a lot tougher and definitely have been playing with a lot more intensity lately,” said junior guard Jill Young.

“We’re very confident and happy with how we’re playing lately. The big thing for us is that we know we need to continue to take steps forward and we still have to get to another level in the tournament,” said senior forward Kristin Rotert.

The Jacks will meet the sixth-seeded Bison in Sioux Falls for the second time in eight days, something that is unique but not worrisome for SDSU.

“We want to go back and improve and make some adjustments but at the same point you don’t want to overdo things because we have been playing well and you don’t want to tinker too much. We need to figure out what we did well up in Fargo and do that more often and make a few minor adjustments to our defense, trying to stay with the same formula,” Johnston said.

Oral Roberts is the tournament’s number one seed but is without stellar guard Jaci Bigham, leading many to believe that the title is still up for grabs. The Jackrabbits will hold an obvious advantage when it comes to supporters in the seats.

“We hope it’s an advantage. Not many teams get to play 45 minutes away from their hometown. Our fans have been good for us in the past and good for the women’s tournament overall,” said Johnston.

Johnston says that who they face in the tournament isn’t important to him. After SDSU defeated the Mastodons on Feb. 21, IPFW coach Chris Paul said he hopes the two meet again.

“We just need to figure out how to win a game and get a chance to play the next one. Whether it’s pretty, whether it’s ugly, it doesn’t matter. You just try to have one point than the other team at this point.”

“For us, we don’t really care about that. We’re going to take on whoever is next on our schedule and prepare for them and play well against them. There’s no one in the league that we’re hoping to avoid and no one we’re hoping to play,” Rotert said.

Conference tournaments are known for yielding unpredictably and the Jacks will need to be ready for anything if they want to make it three straight Summit League Championships.

“I think we need to be ready for anything and any situation. Last year, we had to win an overtime game in the championship. The year before that, we had to come back from 10 down in the first half. We’ve had some good experiences, so we should be prepared,” Johnston said.

“We’ve got raise our level of play and be ready to play three games in a row. If we get to Tuesday, we’ll be ready to play then,” Young said.

Editor’s note: Marcus Traxler will post daily updates from the Summit League tournament here.

Maybe not.

In addition to falling back to .500 in Summit League play, SDSU remains winless in the Mabee Center, the place Oral Roberts call home.

The Jacks (6-6, 14-9) dissolved a fourpoint halftime lead and a one-point advantage in the final two minutes to surrender yet another road loss at Oral Roberts (7-5, 10-14), 77-73 Feb. 3.

Seems unlikely given the Jacks almost erased the Golden Eagles’ three-point shooting entirely, got quality performances from Dale Moss and Nate Wolters and played with the lead virtually the entire first half.

That doesn’t bring attention the 45-29 rebounding disparity in favor of Oral Roberts that, again and again, led to easy second-chance buckets. A remarkable 20 of those Golden Eagles rebounds were on the offensive side.

“With 20 offensive rebounds, it’s almost impossible to win,” said SDSU point guard Nate Wolters, who finished with a team-high 18 points in playing all 40 minutes. “If you give that many up it usually results in lay-ups … we played good defensively on the first shot but just could not get any rebounds.”

The beneficiary of SDSU’s rebounding ineptitude was Damen Bell-Holter, who finished with 15 rebounds total, including seven of ORU’s 20 offensive boards.

In fact, Bell-Holter finished with more offensive rebounds than any SDSU player combined.

“It wasn’t shooting, it was the rebounding,” said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy.

“We can’t get beat on the glass by 16, lose by four, and think that (shooting) was the reason you lost.”

Sometimes winning is easy. The Jacks (15-9, 7-6) jumped out to a 28-point first half lead and coasted to a 102-73 win against still winless Centenary (0-25, 0-13) Feb. 5.

Those 102 points included six players scoring in double-figures, draining an almost standard 12 three-pointers while every player on the roster played at least 10 minutes and scored at least one bucket.

Yes, SDSU can shoot the ball, and senior guard Clint Sargent has been the poster boy. His three three-pointers put him atop the career threepoint shooting record, replacing assistant coach Austin Hansen.

“Probably nobody’s happier than Coach Hansen,” said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy in his postgame radio interview. “He’s as good a shooter as I’ve ever coached.”

The easy-handling of Centenary came in the first half, in which the Jacks scored 54 points – a seasonhigh – and outpaced the Gentleman by 28-points in the game’s opening 20 minutes.

Not that Centenary shot poorly.

In fact, the Gentleman – in their last season at Division I and almost certainly the last matchup between the two teams – shot 58 percent in the second half in keeping pace with the Jacks over the final 20 minutes. But individual performances were in plentitude, led by Jordan Dykstra’s 20 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field with 11 rebounds in only 17 minutes.

“I was concerned whether we’d show up or not,” said Nagy of his team’s mentality entering the game.

“When you play a team that’s gone through what these guys have you take them lightly, but our guys didn’t.”

The win assured SDSU of its first winning season since 2003, and its first since entering Division I in 2004.

At 7-6 in conference play with three of their final five games on the road, the Jacks will enter their final week of home play against Western Illinois and IUPUI.

Matchups at Frost Arena this season have routinely shown the venue as a premiere harbinger for offense.

Not tonight. And not in SDSU’s favor, either.

The Jackrabbits (13-8, 5-5) found few semblances of the offensive firepower expected of their 14th nationally ranked scoring offense and allowed a 10-point lead to slowly erode and completely fizzle in a 63-58 head-scratching loss, its fourth conference home loss of the year.

“I honestly can’t figure it out,” said senior Dale Moss, who tied a career with 12 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes. “We’re so gifted in so many areas and one thing we’re lacking is straight up toughness.”

The 2,222 fans in attendance at Frost Arena saw a general lack of quality shooting. Clint Sargent, who entered shooting 54 percent his previous three games from three-point range, went 3-for-14 from the field and 1-for-8 from beyond the arc. Leading scorer Nate Wolters finished with 19 points but on 21 shots from the floor. Those two players took over half of SDSU’s shots from the field.

That lower-than expected performance offensively overshadows an improved result on the defensive end. SDSU allowed eight points lower than average and accomplished 14 more field-goal attempts in the game than the Kangaroos did. Moreover, the Jacks’ offensive ineptitude fronted itself in the closing minutes of the second half, allowing a 20-6 UMKC run that finalized their fourth home conference loss before the midpoint of Summit League play.

“We’re more than a one-person team,” said UMKC head coach Matt Brown. “We’re not the most talented team, but we do what it takes to win.”

That win for UMKC came despite a poor game from preseason all-conference selection Jay Cousinard. The Kangaroos’ leading scorer finished with eight points and nearly as many turnovers with seven. Conversely, SDSU’s leading scorer, Wolters, finished with nearly a triple double, but saw little offensive production elsewhere, upperclassmen or underclassmen.

“We went inside to Nate, we got them inside to Chad, they just missed easy shots,” head coach Scott Nagy said.

“And only getting to the free throw line twelve times is not enough.”

None of that would have mattered if SDSU kept its lead that was as high as 10 points with 14:31 left in the second half, but 6-of-20 shooting from that point on allowed a Kangaroos comeback and descended the Jacks further in the conference standings.

“We’re begging teams to lose now, we’re not gonna pack it in obviously,” Moss said. “Even when we were struggling a few years ago we weren’t 2-4 [at home]. It’s frustrating.”

#1.1960071:1335594227.png:Clint2.png:Clint Sargent powers ahead with UMKC?s Michael Gholston Jr. defending in the first half of SDSU?s 63-58 loss to the Kangaroos on Jan. 27. Sargent finished the game with nine points.:Collegian Photo by Robby Gallagher

Who needs defense?

Neither SDSU or Southern Utah, apparently. Nate Wolters, Clint Sargent, and Jordan Dykstra did something no other Jacks triumvirate has done in seven seasons in a 96-79 win in the annual Pork Classic.

That win doesn’t come with a defensive exclamation point, but the Jacks forced 20 turnovers and turned out a season-high 12 steals in addition to the offensive superlatives from Wolters, Sargent and Dykstra. Their performances come off the heels of a disappointing effort against UMKC, showing again that the Jacks can rebound from losses well.

“I’m kind of tired of it,” said Sargent, who now sits four three-pointers away from breaking the career school record. “I’m happy with how we play when we bounce back, but we need that energy more consistently to win games, especially on the defensive side.”

The offense started early. Actually, it started on New Years Day, when SDSU beat the Thunderbirds on the road, 105-95. An offensive circus seemed preordained, with any defense purely an added bonus.

That bonus, though offensive, was Wolters, Sargent and Dykstra. The three were the first trio to score 20+ points apiece in a game since Jan. 10, 2004. Sargent’s 22 points helped pace the Jacks to 97 points, their second highest scoring output of the year, only lower than the 105-point output in Cedar City, Utah.

“It would have been nice to have a few of those shots in the UMKC game,” said Jacks head coach Scott Nagy, “but when we shoot it, we’re pretty good.”

When they shoot it and win, they win big. All but one of SDSU’s 14 victories have been by double-digits. The most recent wins, IPFW and a season-sweeping win of the Thunderbirds, were 35 and 17 points, respectively.

Winning big hasn’t been a problem against Southern Utah in particular. The Jacks have won five straight against the Thunderbirds, and four of those wins by double-digits.

“When we shoot it, it opens up the floor for Nate,” said Nagy of a recipe for winning games convincingly. “It’s nice that we’re having some of these wins, but we need to win close ones.”

Coming off the bench for the fourth straight game was Dykstra His 20 points came on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, including a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range. Since switching roles with Tony Fiegen, the freshman has averaged 13 points and six rebounds per game off the bench.

“On any given night, it could be any of us,” said the Rock Valley, Iowa native Dykstra. “We have great players on this team. We’ve been saying all year that we don’t have a problem scoring points, it’s playing defense. Once we get that done, we’ll be alright.”

Looks like the path through the Summit League begins and ends with black-and-gold.

Oakland (13-8, 8-0) could not be contained on the offensive end while SDSU (12-7, 4-4) simply had no answer in a 97-88 loss at Frost Arena Jan. 20.

This Golden Grizzlies win had record-setting significance. Just one season after setting the conference winning-streak record at 16 consecutive games, Oakland tied its own record of 16, and on the same floor. Except this year, they didn’t need to come back from a deficit. And two nights later, they beat NDSU to move the record to 17.

“I just talked to our team about it,” said Oakland head coach Greg Kampe, whose theatrics from the bench drew attention from the SDSU student section throughout. “In my 33 years of coaching it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, this is something no one can take from us.”

Not that the Jacks didn’t stand a chance. With 8:38 left in the first half, the score was tied at 29 apiece. But Oakland’s Keith Benson, considered a potential NBA lottery pick, seemed to score at will. He finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds while altering numerous inside shots that he was able to interrupt. All without breaking much of a sweat, and all while breaking the conference record for blocks in a career with his 320th deflection in the first half.

“Our kids played well tonight,” said Jacks head coach Scott Nagy. “We’re just not at their talent level, lets face it they just have a depth of talent, but we’ll get there.”

That talent level almost broke the game wide open in the second half. Oakland extended their lead to 18 points at just under the 14-minute mark of the final half, but stellar shooting kept the contest within reach. Two seasons ago, SDSU came back from 17 points in the second half against Oakland to complete a thrilling victory against the eventual tournament runner-up to Oakland.

“We just couldn’t get any stops when we really needed them,” said point guard Nate Wolters, who finished with 16 points and seven assists. “Offense definitely wasn’t a problem.”

Not for either team. Oakland drained 12 threes, the third highest they’ve made this season, and scored 97 points, also the third highest they’ve tallied this season. Those 97 points are the highest SDSU have allowed a team in Frost Arena since 2004.

SDSU’s offensive firepower was supplied largely from the players Benson defended. The tandem of freshman Jordan Dykstra and Tony Fiegen combined for 33, nearly 40 percent of SDSU’s point total and grabbed 13 rebounds. None of that was enough, but virtually nothing has been against Oakland, now winners of 36 of their past 37 conference games, including the conference tournament.

“We can get to second place,” said Nagy about hopes for conference seeding. “I don’t think Oakland’s going to lose but we can get second.”

#1.1918872:2838055956.png:oakland-mbb-GALLAGHER.png:Clint Sargent shoots over Oakland?s Keith Benson on Jan. 20. Sargent had 18 points but Benson?s Golden Grizzlies won 97-88.:Collegian Photo by Robby Gallagher

Senior leadership.

From the tantalizing leaping ability of Dale Moss to the adroit shooting touch of Clint Sargent, to the stable defense of bench player Peyton Tivis, that’s what Jan. 22′s game against IPFW seemed to be about.

Senior leadership. That, and bare feet. Oh, and a clubbing of the Mastodons.

SDSU (13-7, 5-4) scored more than enough points while stifling a disoriented IPFW (12-7, 6-3) team – a team two games better in the conference standings heading into the matchup – in a 87-52 SDSU shellacking at Frost Arena.

It was no coincidence that, with the theme of senior leadership, Sargent and Moss heeded the call. Moss’ 17 point effort on 8-of-12 shooting in a 28 minute performance of energy and high-flying athleticism. Sargent’s cool-handedness from beyond the arc resulted in 24 points of his own, all in 25 minutes. But SDSU’s defense effort resounds the most, in part due to the defensive foibles in home conference games to start the season, in which SDSU entered only 1-3 at home.

“We were just really locked in,” said Sargent, “We fed off that offensively and it gave us energy.”

That defensive-inspired energy was complemented by the play off Moss. His put-back, one-handed dunk off a missed Nate Wolters lay-up escalated SDSU’s level of play and exhilarated the Frost Arena crowd of 3,559. Those two loud points with 9:31 left in the first half increased SDSU’s lead to 10 only to increase by double before halftime.

“This was a thorough beating,” said IPFW head coach Dane Fife. “That’s about all I have to say … I would say that coach Nagy has his team playing at a very high level right now.”

That level of play included some season-bests, and from where SDSU needed it most: defensively. IPFW’s 13 percent shooting from three-point range and 35 percent shooting from floor are the lowest percentages allowed all season. Those numbers far out-shined modest offensive numbers (10 points) from SDSU’s leading scorer, Wolters – who had put up over 30 points in each of the Jacks’ previous two doubleheader games, both losses.

“Our backs were against the wall a little bit, we knew if we lost we’d be three games back,” said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy. “I think that was the case; theirs were not against the wall and ours were, and we played with some desperation.”

That style of play has eluded SDSU at times during their time in the Summit League. The Mastodons toppled down a slightly favored Jacks team in the first round of the Summit League tournament last season, and annihilated the Jacks in Fort Wayne, Ind. two seasons ago in similar fashion before finding thermselves with the 35-point blowout Saturday.

The win, the highest margin of victory for the Jacks ever in Summit League play, came as a slight surprise to Nagy, who described anguish while watching tape of IPFW because of a skepticism in his team’s defensive effort. Against Oakland two nights earlier, Nagy called for a 3-2 zone defense midway through the first half, something SDSU had never so much as practiced, only to see instant improvement.

“The kids responded and played defense like I think we can,” said, who pointed out a more noticeably vocal Moss and Sargent in pregame as a sign his players understood the importance of a win. “Jordan (Dykstra) was as good as I’ve seen him, he didn’t let (Trey) McCorkle touch the ball.”

SDSU’s defensive markings look unusual in context with season statistics, but the win marks SDSU’s 13th victory, and the first win for Nagy and his coaching staff when barefoot, a third annual effort to raise charity.

Does a win make the feet feel better? “Yeah,” Nagy said with a grin, “It’s because I can’t stomp them.”

#1.1918869:203676832.png:mbb-ipfw-BRUA-001.png:Dale Moss skies for the basket in the second half of SDSU?s 87-52 victory over IPFW on Jan 22.:Collegian Photo by Stephen Brua
#1.1918870:3187867824.png:mbb-ipfw-BRUA-006.png:Scott Nagy shares a smile with the rest of his coaching staff during the Jacks? victory on Saturday. The men?s coaching staff went barefoot during the game to raise awareness for Samaritan?s Feet, a charity that raises money for shoes to kids in Haiti.:Collegian Photo by Stephen Brua