Box Score

VERMILLION, S.D. – The South Dakota men's basketball team made head coach Craig Smith's home debut a winning one as the Coyotes topped Wayne State (Neb.) 86-69 in the DakotaDome on Wednesday night. The win was Smith's first with the program.

Senior guard Brandon Bos tallied 22 points to lead the Coyote (1-5) scoring effort while fellow senior Tyler Larson added 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Austin Sparks came off the bench to tally eight points in his DakotaDome debut.

Wayne State (1-3) had four players reach double-figures with post player Patrick Kurth recording 19 points, Joel Heesch and Trae VandeBerg both tallying 11 points and Kendall Jacks finishing with 10 points. The game was counted as an exhibition game for the Wildcats.

South Dakota outscored the Wildcats 46-38 in the paint, 20-11 off turnovers and 30-21 in bench points. The Coyotes also committed eight turnovers to Wayne State's 15.

Both teams shot over 50 percent in the first half, as the Coyotes shot 59.4 percent (19-32) to the Wildcats' 51.7 percent (15-29). South Dakota tallied 14 points off of nine Wildcat turnovers, held a 32-22 advantage in points in the paint and led 47-40 at the break. Larson tallied 10 points in the opening half.

USD eventually built on its lead in the second half behind 13 points from Bos. Wayne State cut USD's lead to 52-49 with 16:40 remaining, but the Coyotes responded with a 14-2 run over the next six minutes, 30 seconds. Wayne State couldn't cut the lead to single-digits the rest of the way, and trailed by as many as 19 (86-67) with 1:33 remaining.

The Coyotes will head west to take on Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday at 6 p.m. CT. They will follow up with a game at Cal State Northridge on Tuesday at 9 p.m. CT.