DU’s men’s basketball team failed to compete in a loss to South Dakota State on Saturday at Frost Arena, falling 94-72. The defeat dropped the Pioneer squad to 7-11 (1-3 Summit League) on the year, while the Jackrabbits improved to 16-5 (4-0 Summit League) with the win.

Junior guard Joe Rosga (St. Paul, Minn.) led DU with a team-high 19 points and four rebounds. Senior center Daniel Amigo (El Paso, Texas), again coming off the bench, provided productive minutes, scoring 17 points and pulling down nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Ade Murkey (Minneapolis, Minn.) set a new career-high of 15 points, his fourth double-digit scoring game in the last five games.

The South Dakota State Jackrabbits came off the bench strong, jumping out to a 12-4 advantage just over five minutes into the first half. The Jackrabbits led with balanced scoring, having four of their starters score during the stretch.

A three-pointer from Tevin King made it an 18-point lead for the Jackrabbits at the 6:56 mark in the period, giving him five points on the afternoon.

Denver started to get some momentum, cutting the lead to 13 after a pull-up jumper from Murkey made it 35-22 and gave the Minneapolis, Minn. native six in the game. South Dakota State found some momentum, going up 45-26 at the break.

The Jackrabbits’, Daum was a force in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, which included three three-pointers.

The Pioneers were held to just 40.6 percent (13-for-32) shooting in the period.

The second half wasn’t much different, as DU couldn’t get enough stops on the defensive end to generate some momentum and eat into the Jackrabbits’ lead.

Denver got to within 15 points after a three from Rosga made it 71-56 in favor of SDSU. The three gave the junior 1,100 career points and put him in a tie for 26th on the all-time scoring list.

South Dakota State quickly extended its lead back to 23 points after a pair of free throws from Daum, upping his point total to 34.

The Jackrabbits kept the high lead the rest of the way, locking up the victory and remaining unbeaten in league play.

Denver returns to the court for part two of its four-game road trip with two more  contests next week. They face Omaha on Jan. 18. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.