DES MOINES, Iowa—
Trey Burch-Manning had game highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds and
Matt Mooney hit two key 3-pointers down the stretch in leading South Dakota to a 79-74 win against Drake Friday night at the Knapp Center in the season opener for both teams.
It was the Coyotes' first season-opening win since moving to Division I in 2008. It also ended a 10-game losing streak to Drake, though the teams have now met twice since 1987. USD will head home and prepare to open its new facility, the Sanford Coyote Sports Center, by hosting Bowling Green Sunday at 3:15 p.m. in the second game of a women's and men's doubleheader.
South Dakota head coach
Craig Smith started four transfers with his lone senior,
Tyler Flack, and those five combined to score all but nine of his team's points. Mooney made 8 of 16 shots including four 3-pointers for 21 points, Flack had 12 points,
Carlton Hurst netted eight points and
Trey Dickerson had five.
"It's definitely an entirely different looking team than the last couple of years," said Smith. "What a well-earned victory for our guys and when you're doing it when we're as young as we are, you just never know how they're going to respond."
Burch-Manning (13), Mooney (12) and Flack (7) combined for 32 of South Dakota's 39 points in the first half. Drake used a pair of 9-0 runs early to build a lead that grew as much as eight points. The Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent in the first half and were 12 of 16 from the line to take a 45-39 advantage into the break.
"They offensive rebounded 43 percent of their missed shots, scored 14 points off our turnovers and we shot six free throws to their 16," said Smith. "In the second half, boy we rectified all those numbers in a major way and really played from in front down the stretch and that's what you have to do, especially on the road."
Drake forward Billy Wampler hit a 3 on the first possession of the second half, but South Dakota scored 13 of the game's next 16 points to take a 52-51 advantage less than five minutes into the stanza. Burch-Manning scored seven points during the run including his second triple of the game.
The Coyotes took the lead for good on a layup by Hurst at the midpoint of the second half. Flack's steal-and-score with 5:36 remaining gave USD its largest lead at 68-60. Flack matched his career high of 10 rebounds and nabbed his third collegiate double-double.
Drake pulled within one at the three-minute mark, the two-minute mark and the one-minute mark, but the Yotes answered each time. Burch-Manning knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:40 left that made it 72-69. Mooney hit a 3-pointer out of a timeout with 1:33 left that made it 75-71. His fourth 3 also came out of a timeout and proved to be the dagger with 19 seconds left. It put the Yotes ahead 78-74.
"Matt is obsessed with working out, he's obsessed with winning, he's obsessed with being the best he can be," said Smith. "I've coached for 21 years. I've coached a lot of really good players and I'm not sure anybody has ever worked harder than that guy. At the end of the game, you can put the ball in his hands and see what he can do with it and obviously he made a couple of great plays."
Mooney had half of USD's eight 3-pointers. The Yotes were 8 of 24 from beyond the arc while Drake hit 7 of 18. The Coyote defense held Drake to 42 percent shooting in the second half and to just three shots from the free-throw line.
"Carlton had the toughest assignment tonight and he was really, really good defensively in the second half. I thought
Dan Jech had one of his best games he's had as a Coyote. He made some humongous plays for us defensively, altering shots at the rim where it looked like they were going to get layups and he had a big putback down here too."
Jech had two blocks and five rebounds to go with two points in 12 minutes off the bench. The Coyotes also got their first look at true freshmen
Brandon Armstrong,
Tyler Peterson and
Triston Simpson. All three logged double-digit minutes with Simpson netting 22 in part due to two first-half fouls for Dickerson that limited him to six first-half minutes.
"We probably worked against a 1-3-1 defense probably twice, and they hadn't shown that at all last year," said Smith. "All of a sudden it's just thrown at you early in the year and with
Trey Dickerson getting in foul trouble in the first half, Triston played 14 minutes of almost flawless basketball and really kept us around. The dude can defend. He just makes the right play almost every time."
Reed Timmer's 17 points led four Bulldogs in double figures. T.J. Thomas had 13 points and eight rebounds, but picked up his fifth foul on Mooney's 3-pointer with 1:32 left. C.J. Rivers and Graham Woodward had 10 points each.
South Dakota outrebounded Drake 38-29 and had 16 offensive rebounds that led to 14 points. Burch-Manning had six of them.
"I knew he had a great game, but I didn't know he had 24 and 11 with six offensive boards. The dude is so efficient. He's only a sophomore. He can guard one thru five. He just makes every right play."
