Sioux Falls USF 5-2,0-1 NSIC

Regis (CO) Regis 3-3,0-0 RMAC

Sioux Falls USF

5-2,0-1 NSIC

Final

Nov. 26, 2022

Regis (CO) Regis

3-3,0-0 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Sioux Falls USF	34	39	73
Regis (CO) Regis	32	28	60

Summary
Box Score

Billy Saunders, Regis Athletics

Regis graduate student Jas Singh scored a season-high 21 points on Saturday.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | Nov 26 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Rangers settle for weekend split, fall by 73-60 final to Sioux Falls

DENVER, Colo. — Facing a deep and talented University of Sioux Falls squad, the Regis University men's basketball team was unable to string together enough consistent minutes in a 73-60 home loss to conclude the annual Thanksgiving Classic.

Regis (3-3 overall) finishes 1-1 on the weekend and an even .500 during non-conference play, while the win moved USF (5-2 overall) to 2-0 on its Denver road trip after it defeated MSU Denver on Friday.

"They were impressive. They ran their stuff well, went through their looks and I don't think we did enough, defensively, to disrupt them often enough," said Regis head men's basketball coach, Brady Bergeson. "We had some good moments, but weren't able to string minutes or sustain that consistency long enough to beat a good team. And that's our project right now as it stands through six games."

HOW IT HAPPENED: The Rangers were in catch-up mode most of the evening Saturday as Sioux Falls led 36:17 of the 40 minutes of game time, keeping the Regis defense on its toes with a deliberate and diverse motion offense.

Trailing by as many as 12 points with 3:55 remaining in the first half, the Rangers put together their best stretch of basketball on the night as they closed the half on a 10-0 blitz to trim the deficit to 34-32 at the break.

"When we show great toughness, grit and intensity then good things tend to happen for us. There was not a schematic or tactic change, we weren't doing anything different per say, but the group that was on the floor played determined and finished possessions," Bergeson said.

Unfortunately for Regis, the team was unable to carry that momentum over to the second half as the visiting Cougars opened the final 20 minutes on a 9-1 run to bump their lead back to double-digits at 43-33.

Sioux Falls would go on to lead by as many as 19 points with 8:34 remaining in the game at 64-45 and hold on for the 73-60 final.

"They were more disciplined than we are right now in going through their reads, taking care of the basketball, and they were able to make the extra pass before we were able to cover the extra pass in our rotations," Bergeson said. "For us, mentally, it really was just the inability to be consistent at the level of intensity required to beat good teams."

Despite the loss, graduate student forward Jas Singh provided the Rangers with a major bright spot as he poured in a season-high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 5-for-6 mark from 3-point range.

Saturday's effort marked back-to-back strong performances from Singh, who combined to score 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting on the weekend.

"Jas has been a good player at this level for a few years now and he's still finding his way within our group and within our system," Bergeson said. "He's getting more looks, getting better looks and I think he was anticipating when those looks were coming, so he was expecting it. We know he's a really good player who got off to a bit of a slow start, but hopefully this is the trend. I think we'll have some more good games from Jas moving forward."

Fellow graduate student David Simental was the second Regis player in double-figures with 11 points, while sophomore Brayden Carter and junior CJ Reed followed with nine points and eight points, respectively.

GAME NOTES

Sioux Falls shot 49 percent from the field (28-for-57) while the Rangers were at 44% (21-for-48)
The Cougars finished with 20 assists on their 28 made baskets
Senior forward Aaron Bokol grabbed seven defensive rebounds, giving him 24 total rebounds on the weekend

UP NEXT: The Rangers will now turn their attention toward the start of the RMAC season, which opens next Friday on the road against the defending conference champions Black Hills State University.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. out in Spearfish, South Dakota.

"We've shown plenty of signs that this can be a good team. And we've shown plenty of signs that we're just not consistently operating at a high level. Our graph lines are too up and down," Bergeson said. "We'll need to continue to improve our consistency and our urgency so we can sustain higher quality minutes against good teams in RMAC play. If you play a really good 15-20 minutes, you can beat an OK team, but you're not going to beat good teams. We've got to push this to 30 minutes and eventually 40 minutes of good, high level consistent basketball."

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