Promotions
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Social Media Night: USD basketball is hosting social media night. Follow the game live on Facebook LIVE. Interact with our social media guru to win prizes throughout the night.
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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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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
Wednesday was the battle for first place. Call this one the battle for second place.
Wednesday's opponent was the Summit's best defensive team. Fort Wayne is the Summit's best offensive team.
Either way, it should be another highly-competitive contest inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center where the Coyotes are 8-1 this season. Fort Wayne, ranked No. 8 in this week's Mid-Major Top 25 poll, has won its last three road games and seven of eight overall dating back to early December.
The Mastodons
Fort Wayne is averaging 10 three-pointers and 90 points per game, which rank fourth and fifth in the nation, respectively. The Mastodons lead the nation in 3-point shooting at 43.3 percent, and rank fifth in field goal percentage at 51 percent. The team is led by senior guard Mo Evans, who missed the second half of last season for academic reasons, but has returned to average 18 points per game. Evans has made 63 of 126 3-point attempts, making him one of the top 10 three-point shooters in the nation. In addition, Fort Wayne is getting 16 points per game from Purdue transfer Bryson Scott and 14 points and eight rebounds a game from all-Summit League forward John Konchar, who has made nearly 70 percent of his shots from the field this season. All five Fort Wayne starters shoot at or above 50 percent from the field.
The Coyotes
Western Illinois made 18 3-pointers in beating Fort Wayne, 93-91, in the Summit League opener. South Dakota averages six 3s per game so efficient offense and better defense will be its keys to pulling the upset Saturday. Sophomore guard
Matt Mooney has averaged a team-high 18 points in Summit League play while starters
Trey Dickerson,
Carlton Hurst and
Trey Burch-Manning have scored around 12 points per game. Sophomore forward
Tyler Hagedorn has been terrific off the bench the last two games, totaling 22 points, seven rebounds and five blocks while making 8 of 15 shots. True freshman
Triston Simpson has eight assists against no turnovers in his last two games (55 minutes).
Final Notes
These two teams have met in the first round of the Summit League Tournament in each of the last two seasons with South Dakota winning in 2015 and Fort Wayne advancing last season. The Mastodons won all three meetings a year ago by double digits, scoring no fewer than 85 points. Only four teams have reached 80 points against South Dakota this season. Fort Wayne has failed to reach 80 once in its last 12 games.
