SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Max Landis scored a game-high 24 points and John Konchar added 16 points and 16 rebounds to lead top-seeded Fort Wayne to an 86-70 win against eighth-seeded South Dakota in the first quarterfinal of the Summit League Tournament Saturday at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
 
Fort Wayne (24-8), which avenged last year's loss to USD in the opening round of last year's tournament, advanced to face the winner of North Dakota State and IUPUI Monday at 6 p.m. The Coyotes, who were looking to become the first eight seed to advance in 25 tries, saw their season end at 14-18.
 
"Congratulations to Fort Wayne," said USD head coach Craig Smith. "They are an excellent basketball team. You don't get to 24-8 by accident. They put so much pressure on you on the offensive end. They have five guys out there who can really shoot it at all times and they have the player of the year in Max Landis. I thought our guys played hard and competed hard, but there were a lot of pivotal moments, a lot of 50-50 balls and we didn't quite finish plays at the rim. Certainly in the second half they got away from us."
 
The Coyotes trailed by 11 late in the first half, but guard D.J. Davis scored the last five points to pull USD within six at 39-33. Landis had 14 points at the break and DeAngleo Stewart made three of Fort Wayne's five triples. Tre Burnette scored 11 of his team-high 23 points in the first half for South Dakota.
 
Fort Wayne senior forward Joe Reed hit two three-pointers during the Mastodons' 8-0 spurt to begin the second half. The lead stretched to 62-42 near the 13-minute mark on a bucket by Landis. Landis was 9 of 17 from the field, 4 of 10 from downtown and handed out a game-high six assists.
 
Casey Kasperbauer hit a 3 and Tyler Flack scored four points during a 9-0 run that pulled USD within 11 with 7:30 remaining. Kasperbauer had five points for a four-year total of 1,163, which ranks 30^th of South Dakota's all-time list.
 
Konchar ended the rally with back-to-back buckets and Landis' fourth 3 made it 74-60 with five minutes left. Konchar was 7 of 11 from the field with three assists and four steals.
 
"They had an answer for everything that we threw at them," said Kasperbauer. "We tried to crank up the pressure and they broke the press pretty easily. They do such a good job of spreading other teams out and finding shooters."
 
Stewart's fifth 3-pointer of the game made it 81-63 with 3:12 left. Stewart hit five 3's against USD for the second straight game. He finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. Fort Wayne, one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the nation, made 12 of 31 from downtown.
 
Flack finished a rebound shy of his third collegiate double-double and totaled 15 points. Davis had 11. Point guard Trey Norris had eight points, four rebounds and four of USD's 11 assists. Burnette scored 20-plus points for the fourth time this season. He was 7 of 17 from the field, 4 of 11 from beyond the arc and 5 of 6 from the line.
 
Fort Wayne made 19 of 33 shots in the second half (57 percent) and shot 51 percent for the game. South Dakota made 13 of 32 in the second half (40 percent) and 39 percent for the game.