Promotions
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Faculty Appreciation Night: USD faculty and staff are offered half price tickets for them and their families for this key matchup. In addition, USD basketball will pick a few of their favorite staffers to be recognized on the floor during the game.
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Bring Your "A" Game: Students in the 8th grade and under who present a report card with all As and Bs will get a free ticket to the game.
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BOGO Wednesday: Every Wednesday, fans who buy one ticket to the USD basketball game get another of equal or lesser value for half price.
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Summit League Food Fight: Tonight kicks off week one of the annual Summit League food fight, a league-wide competition between all nine member schools. Bring your canned goods or cash donations for the Vermillion Food Pantry.
The Game
There is just one undefeated team remaining in Summit League play, and it enters the Sanford Coyote Sports Center tonight to face the 3-1 Coyotes. A South Dakota victory against North Dakota State would move the Coyotes one half game ahead of the Bison for first place, would give the Coyotes their best start ever in Summit League play, and would move the program to 9-0 in their new facility.
The Bison
North Dakota State is the top defensive team in the Summit League. Bison opponents are averaging 67 points and shooting 40 percent from the field. NDSU, meanwhile, averages 72 points while shooting 46 percent. The Bison are led by preseason all-Summit picks Paul Miller and Dexter Werner. Miller averages 14 points, five rebounds and two assists. Werner comes off the bench to average 11 points and nearly eight boards. Starters A.J. Jacobson, Khy Kabellis and Carlin Dupree all average around 10 points per game.
The Coyotes
South Dakota has gone 2-1 without perhaps its most consistent player and lone senior
Tyler Flack, who will be sidelined until February. Junior
Austin Sparks has taken Flack's spot in the lineup and a number of Coyotes have upped their game to help fill the void.
Carlton Hurst scored a season-best 19 points in Saturday's home win against IUPUI.
Trey Burch-Manning has averaged 12 points and seven boards in the last three games.
Matt Mooney continues as the team's leading scorer and has averaged 19 points in four Summit League games.
Final Notes
The home team has won the last four meetings in this series, which dates back to the 1922-23 season ... the Coyotes shot a season-best 56 percent from the field Saturday against IUPUI and improved to 9-0 when shooting better than 42 percent ... USD is 9-2 when getting at least 20 points from its bench ... NDSU has scored 80-plus points in three straight conference games for the first time in five years
