Nov. 29, 2012

Final Stats

VERMILLION, S.D.â€"Western Illinois guard Ceola Clark hit a running jumper in the lane as time expired to lift the Leathernecks to a 73-71 win against South Dakota Friday at the DakotaDome in the Summit League opener for both teams.

The game-winner was preceded by a game-tying three-pointer by South Dakota guard Juevol Myles with five seconds left. With no timeouts left on either side, the inbounds pass came to Clark who drove past one defender to reach the lane and got a shot off over a second USD defender that touched nothing but net.

Clark made four, first-half treys and led Western Illinois (4-3, 1-0 Summit) with 20 points. Don McAvoy added 16 and Terell Parks finished with 14 points and nine boards.

South Dakota (3-4, 0-1) scored 52 second-half points against a defense that came into the contest allowing 47 points per game. The Coyotes erased a 14-point deficit early in the second half and a 10-point deficit in less than three minutes at the end, but never got a lead. Myles led all scorers with 21 points.

We battled that second half, said USD head coach Dave Boots. We came from a big halftime deficit to get back into it, then lost it a little bit and got back. Fortunately, a couple of missed free throws gave us a chance and Juevol hit a big shot, but we didn't defend that last play as well as we needed to. He went the length of the court in kind of a scramble situation and we didn't get matched up on it.

After making his first six free throws, Western Illinois guard Jordan Foster missed a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left that set the stage for Myles. The Leathernecks were 8-of-13 from the line in the final 95 seconds.

Myles and teammate Karim Rowson, meanwhile, combined to score 20 points on 8-of-8 shooting in the final 2:20 to tie the game. Rowson scored 12 of his 17 points during that span. He was 8-of-9 from the field and had five rebounds in the game.

Karim had a great game defensively and offensively, said Boots. Our kids really battled tonight. We just didn't commit on that last play. We had five guards in the game because we needed a three and didn't get a good matchup on it. Clark is a sixth-year senior and he knows what's going on at the end of the games.

Clark was averaging 11 points coming into the game, but hit his first four shots â€" all three's â€" and had 12 points at halftime when the Leathernecks led 31-19. South Dakota was 6-of-22 from the field in the first half (27 percent) compared to 18-of-28 in the second half (64 percent).

Western Illinois led 35-21 minutes into the second half when Parks committed his third foul and then was charged a technical foul following the play. Five minutes later, a layup by Rowson tied the game at 40-40. Casey Kasperbauer scored all nine of his points during the first seven minutes of the second half to aid the Coyote rally.