SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The seventh-seeded University of Denver men's basketball team's Cinderella run came to an end in a 76-68 loss to South Dakota State in the Summit League Championship game on Tuesday night at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

Jaxon Brenchley scored 20 points and added nine rebounds to lead the Pioneers (17-17). Tommy Bruner helped out with 17 points, four assists and two steals and DeAndre Craig chipped in with 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists.

NOTES:

• Denver fell to 14-22 in conference tournament games, including 5-9 in the Summit League Tournament and 0-2 in conference championship games in the entirety of Denver's modern Division I era.
• South Dakota State has won 14 of the last 15 meetings in the series.

Tommy Bruner finished with 17 points, 4 assists and 2 steals.

• Bruner finished in double figures for the 33^rd time this season and the 105^th time in his career.
• Bruner was named to the Summit League All-Tournament Team. 

Jaxon Brenchley finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

• Brenchley finished in double figures for the 19^th time this season and the 23^rd time in his career.
• Brenchley finished with 20+ points for the fifth time this season and of his career.
• Brenchley turned in the ninth 20+-point performance in a Summit League Tournament game in the Pios history.
• Brenchley is the third Pioneer to make at least four three-pointers in a conference tournament game.

DeAndre Craig finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.

• Craig finished in double figures for the fourth-straight game and the 11^th time in his freshman campaign.
• Craig finished with 5+ assists for the second-straight game and the third time in his rookie season.
• Craig's seven assists tied with Ade Murkey's seven in 2018 for the program's record in a Summit League Tournament game.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
South Dakota State jumped out to a 22-5 lead in the opening nine minutes of the contest before Isaiah Carr finished off a feed from DeAndre Craig to briefly put a stop to the Jackrabbits run.

Denver's best stretch of the first half was a 9-0 run over a 2:31 span that saw the Pioneers get to the paint for eight points, layups from Jaxon Brenchley, Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente, Tommy Bruner and a dunk from Carr. A 9-2 SDSU run pushed the SDSU lead back to 18 with 1:45 to play before the Pioneers were able to cut it to 14 at the intermission.

South Dakota State stretched the lead to as many as 23 points with 8:33 to go in the second half before a 7-0 spurt on the heels of a Denver scoring sequence cut the South Dakota State to as little as 12 with 4:27 to go.

A Brenchley layin continued to carve into the SDSU lead, a deficit the Pioneers to as little as five, but SDSU knocked down its free-throws down the stretch to hold on to the title game.

This article was partially created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

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