The South Dakota State men's basketball team lit up the national media this weekend by stunning No. 16 New Mexico 70-65 Saturday in front of 15,278 fans inside The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Lobos dropped to 12-1 while SDSU improved to 10-4.
Adding to the storyline was that it was SDSU's first win over a ranked Division I opponent and the Jackrabbits had to take a 1,220-mile bus ride from their last game Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn., to New Mexico because weather problems canceled their flights on Thursday.
They didn't arrive until Friday evening for the 1:30 p.m. Saturday game.
"I don't know if anybody in the country has taken a tougher road trip than this trip this year, and I'm really proud of our guys to come out of it 2-1," Jacks coach Scott Nagy said in a SDSU release. "We played three NCAA teams, and we knew that the 1,200 mile bus trip would have no effect on how we played. We're used to bus trips and we weren't going to use it as an excuse."
NBA first-round draft prospect Nate Wolters led the Jackrabbits with 28 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
"He's still not healthy, that's the thing," Nagy said. "But today, he had more juice today than I've seen him have in the last five games. He was active emotionally, and that's what we need from him."
Chad White added 13 points, including four clutch free throws late in the game. Jordan Dykstra and Brayden Carlson both finished with 10 points, with Dykstra adding a game-high 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
White's brother, Mitch, is a sophomore starter for the 9-4 Northern State team.
SDSU took the lead on a White three-pointer just two minutes and six seconds into the game, a lead that the Jackrabbits would never relinquish. The Jackrabbits return to Summit League play on Saturday at North Dakota State at 7 p.m.
The Pit was the same arena where the Jackrabbits lost to Baylor in the NCAA Tournament last season. Wolters, who scored at least 20 points for the 47th time in his career, now has 1,868 career points. That leaves him 68 shy of breaking the all-time record of 1,931 set by Mark Tetzlaff in 1981-85.
Mark is the dad of NSU senior standout Dustin Tetzlaff.
Face freed: With a charge led by my American News teammate Scott Waltman, more than $4,000 was raised for The Salvation Army in Operation Free The Face.
As Scott has pointed out all along, many were involved in the operation that raised money and led to some people having their hair and whiskers cut at the Aberdeen Wings game on Saturday. Among those freed Saturday night was Scott's long-flowing red beard.
Another Christmas miracle in the books.
Aberdeen native: On Dec. 5, Aberdeen native Mort Friedman died at age 80 in his adopted hometown of Sacramento, Calif.
The Sacramento Bee newspaper celebrated his life not only with an obituary, but an editorial as well. The Bee reported that Friedman's "drive and vision as a lawyer, businessman and philanthropist shaped the culture in Sacramento from law and medicine to the arts and retailing."
The newspaper continued:
"Few movers and shakers in Sacramento have made as big a mark in as many areas of civic life as Mr. Friedman. A man of boundless energy and generosity, his name regularly appeared on lists of the most influential people in the area.
"With his wife of 57 years, Marcy, he built a fortune that they tapped freely to benefit the community. Their philanthropy included a $10 million donation that made them a driving force behind a major expansion of the Crocker Art Museum."
Friedman was one of the nation's top personal injury lawyers. He was the lead attorney for plaintiffs who earned hundreds of millions of dollars in numerous high-profile cases. He was a major real estate developer, as well.
Friedman was born on Aug. 4, 1932, and raised in South Dakota by Russian Jews who emigrated in the early 1900s and settled in the northern Great Plains. He lived with his sister and parents above a general store they ran in Aberdeen. His abilities in track and field earned him an athletic scholarship to the University of Michigan. He later transferred to Stanford University, where he earned a business degree and graduated from law school.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News. Reach him at jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Blog: aberdeensports.net/inthehuddle.
Twitter:@jpapendick