The Game
Two former Summit League foes get together again when UMKC hosts South Dakota inside Municipal Auditorium tonight in Kansas City. The teams met four times during the Summit League slate from 2011-13 and again last December when South Dakota won 79-70 inside the DakotaDome.
Trey Norris and
Tre Burnette scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, to lead the Coyote attack which gave USD a 3-2 edge in the series. The return trip is tonight, though this is the first time Municipal Auditorium will host. The 2011 and 2012 games took place at Swinney Recreation Center on the campus of UMKC. That facility serves as home to Roos' volleyball and women's basketball programs.
About UMKC
The Roos return three starters from last year's team that finished 12-19 overall and 4-10 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Two of those players are preseason all-conference honorees Martez Harrison and LaVell Boyd. Harrison, a first-team choice, has been suspended indefinitely and is expected to miss his second game. Boyd, a senior sharpshooter who scored 25 points inside the DakotaDome last season, is the WAC's leading scorer at 19 points per game in the early going this season. He has reached 20 points in each of his last four games.
Common Ground
South Dakota beat Drake 79-74 in Des Moines and Bowling Green 78-72 at home in the first to games of the season. UMKC beat Drake 68-62 at home and won at Bowling Green 71-69 in games two and three of the season. The Roos also beat Murray State, Arkansas Monticello and Southeast Missouri, with losses to 10th-ranked Creighton and Green Bay. UMKC's 86-75 win at home against Southeast Missouri was played two nights ago and was the team's first without Harrison. Boyd scored a game-high 24 points (12-12 FT) while Broderick Robinson and Kyle Steward added 15 and 13, respectively. Outside of Harrison and Boyd, no UMKC player averages better than seven points per game.
Onward
South Dakota is off to its best start at the Division I level at 6-2. The Coyotes are coming off a 72-67 win at home Sunday against a Montana team picked to finish near the top of the Big Sky Conference.
Tyler Flack and
Matt Mooney scored 18 points apiece in the win.
Carlton Hurst added 13. Seven different players have led USD in scoring this season and balanced scoring has been the norm early on for a team with many new pieces. Among them are true freshmen
Triston Simpson,
Brandon Armstrong and
Tyler Peterson who have all provided double-digit minutes off the bench in all eight games.
The Venue
Municipal Auditorium, which opened in 1936, has hosted nine NCAA Championships, which are the most of any other building in the country. It hosted three of the first four Final Fours, but has not hosted an NCAA tournament game since 1964. It hosted 11 Big 12 Women's Tournaments from 1997-2012. The facility is home to the NAIA National Tournament and the MIAA (Division II) Tournament. The building received $5 million in improvements in 2013 which include new video boards, LED scorer's table, sound system, lighting and lower level seating.
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