Valparaiso University

Sophomore Carter Hopoi (Tauranga, New Zealand / Mount Maunganui College NZ) upped his career highs in scoring and rebounding, but the Valparaiso University men's basketball team fell 81-69 to South Dakota State on Wednesday night in Brookings, S.C. The Jackrabbits, who own the third-best home record nationally since 2011-12 behind Gonzaga and Kansas, improved to 3-0 by prevailing in a battle of two teams that entered the night ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25.
 
How It Happened

• South Dakota State raced out to an early 8-1 lead. Valpo battled right back, getting even on a 3-pointer by Hopoi that tied the game at 11. Valpo took a 14-13 lead after a traditional 3-point play by Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) with 11:43 left in the first half.
• The Jackrabbits used a 10-1 burst to grab a 31-20 advantage when Semaj Stampley hit a 3 at the 6:10 mark. The lead grew to as many as 19 and stood at 17 (49-32) at halftime.
• Sophomore JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) picked up his second foul early in the first half and spent substantial time on the bench. He hit a 3 to open the second-half scoring.
• Valpo cut the lead to 10 at 56-46 with 12:31 left in the second half on a second-chance trey by Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212 Sports Academy]). When Sader Servilus (Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Fort Erie International Academy) gobbled up an offensive board and scored a second-chance lay-in with 9:41 to play, the lead shrank to nine at 59-50 as Valpo had nearly halved the halftime deficit in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
• Valpo endured a long field-goal drought, as SDSU ran off eight straight to expand the lead from 11 to 19. It reached 20 with four minutes to go. The Beacons fought to the final whistle, as Hopoi continued to be impressive down the stretch, and freshman Hudson Scroggins (Lake Bluff, Ill. / Lake Forest [Kimball Union Academy]) made some plays, including a tip-in bucket in the closing seconds that represented the evening's final points.

Inside the Game

• Hopoi led the Beacons with a career-high 16 points to go along with a career-high nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Hopoi became the sixth different and ninth total Valpo player with a 16-point, nine-rebound, three-block game since 2004. Cooper Schwieger did it four times, and before that it was Kobe King, Ryan Broekhoff, Cory Johnson and Dan Oppland.
• Hopoi's previous scoring career high was 14 on Jan. 31, 2026 at Indiana State and his previous rebounding career high was eight in this year's season opener against Western Illinois.
• Pettigrew scored 15 points despite being limited to 23 minutes due to foul trouble before fouling out. He has scored in double figures in 11 straight games dating back to last season.
• Chaney contributed 12 points, six rebounds and four assists. He has scored in double figures all three games this season and eight of his last nine games going back to last year.
• Scroggins tallied eight points on 3-of-4 shooting including his first collegiate field goal.
• Servilus and Terron Garrett (St. Louis, Mo. / Vashon [Mineral Area College]) both had positive plus-minus numbers in a game Valpo lost by 12.
• Valpo shot 30 percent (6-of-20) from 3 and 23-of-35 (65.7 percent) from the free-throw line.
• Valpo held a 38-37 rebounding advantage including a 13-9 edge on the offensive glass. South Dakota State won the turnover battle 9-7. Valpo has committed single-figure turnovers in all three games this season, committing exactly nine in each contest.
• Valpo outscored SDSU 37-32 in the second half, but the halftime deficit was too large to overcome.
• Both teams entered the game at 2-0, ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25 and had power-4 wins to their name as South Dakota State beat Kansas State last week. The Jackrabbits have made seven NCAA Tournament appearances since 2012, making the Big Dance as recently as 2024.

Up Next
Valpo (2-1) will return home to host CCSJ on Monday at 7 p.m. on Military Appreciation Night at the Athletics-Recreation Center. Tickets are available at tickets.valpoathletics.com.