FORT WORTH, Texas — South Dakota men's basketball had a chance to tie TCU with 17 seconds on the clock but had its shot bounce on the back iron, as the Coyotes fell 76-71 in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday night.
 
Junior Matt Mooney first tied the game at 68-68 on a fade-away jumper on the baseline with 3:07 reaming in the contest after USD had trailed by as many as 11 points. After TCU scored four-straight points, Mooney drove the lane with 41 seconds on the clock and pulled the Coyotes within one-point with an old-fashioned three-point play. The free throw gave Mooney a new career-high 31 points on the night.
 
TCU (3-0) regained a three-point lead with 23 seconds on the clock as preseason Big 12 all-conference honoree Vlad Brodziansky got into the paint for a layup.
 
On the ensuing Coyotes possession, Mooney got a look at the basket from 3-point range but had his shot just miss, forcing the Coyotes to foul. Kouat Noi made both of his free throw attempts, which proved to be the final score of 76-71.
 
Mooney tallied 20 second-half points, his second-straight game of 20-plus points in a half, for his game-high 31 points. Junior Tyler Hagedorn, continuing his breakout season scoring a career-best 22 points, with an even 11 points in each half.
 
South Dakota (2-1) played with the lead for 6:50 of the first half, and it was not until 9:39 remaining in the first stanza that TCU captured its first lead. South Dakota flexed its muscle early in the game when Hagedorn gathered a pass from Mooney on a fast break, and sent it home with a one-handed jam, forcing a TCU timeout with 15:38 on the clock and USD leading 8-3.
 
After TCU scored on a jumper out of the timeout, Triston Simpson hit Mooney for a trey to build the Coyotes lead to six points. South Dakota held its advantage for the next five minutes until Ahmed Hamdy scored on a jumper and Alex Robinson sank a pair of free throws to give the Horned Frogs their first lead of the night at 21-19.
 
Simpson scored on a layup with 4:05 remaining in the half to knot the game at 30-all but TCU then closed the half on a 12-3 run to enter the intermission with a 42-33 advantage.
 
TCU opened the half by building an 11-point lead. Mooney then scored three-straight treys, with a layup from the Horned Frogs after the first three, to cut the deficit down to four points at 47-43 with 16:15 remaining. However, the home squad built its lead back to nine points with 10:30 showing on the clock.
 
An 8-0 run from South Dakota, with a jumper from Mooney and back-to-back 3-point baskets from Hagedorn, closed the gap to just a single point with 8:21 showing on the clock and a score of 59-58.
 
That set up the dramatic ending that nearly saw South Dakota capture the victory over TCU, who was picked to finish third in the preseason Big 12 poll.
 
South Dakota utilized 21 points off turnovers as Carlton Hurst and Triston Simpson each had three steals to set those opportunities up. Simpson also tallied five assists, four rebounds and a block in the contest.
 
South Dakota shot 28-of-61 from the field for 45.9 percent while the Horned Frogs went 27-of-58 for 46.6 percent.
 
Brodziansky led TCU with 23 points while Kenrich Williams grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
 
South Dakota returns to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff against Grambling State. Tickets are available by calling the Coyote Ticket Office at (605) 677-5959 or by visiting GoYotes.com/tickets.