VERMILLION, S.D.—South Dakota's Matt Mooney and South Dakota State's Reed Tellinghuisen put on a shooting display, but it was three consecutive 3-pointers by Mooney down the stretch that was the difference in the Coyotes' 91-89 win against the Jackrabbits before a record crowd of 5,265 at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
South Dakota (18-10, 9-4 Summit) beat its in-state rival for the first time in five games and stayed a half game behind North Dakota State for first place in the Summit League standings with three games to go. NDSU (17-8, 9-3) beat Denver at home Saturday.
 
Mooney made five 3-pointers and scored 25 points. Tellinghuisen made 8 of 13 from downtown in tallying a career-best 28 points. The Coyotes made a season-high 14 triples on 28 attempts. The Jacks, behind Tellinghuisen, made 13 of 24.
 
In addition to those two, South Dakota got 23 points and eight rebounds from big man Tyler Flack and four 3's and a season-high tying 17 points from point guard Trey Dickerson. The Jacks got 22 points, six boards and five assists from Mike Daum and 14 points from point guard Michael Orris.
 
"What a great college basketball game by both teams," said USD head coach Craig Smith. "I thought South Dakota State played excellent basketball. Daum is so good, and Reed Tellinghuisen was as good as I've seen him play in his career. You pick your poison when you play them."
 
Daum, the nation's second-leading scorer at nearly 24 points per game, had one field goal and five points in the first half. That was due largely to a persistent double team that forced it out of his hands. But Tellinghuisen was the benefactor of that for much of the game. Each of his three 3's in the first half were off Daum assists.
 
Flack scored 16 points in the first half on 6 of 8 shooting that included two 3's of his own. The Coyotes made 18 of 32 shots in the opening stanza against the Jacks' man-to-man defense and led 49-43 at the break.
 
Dickerson made two 3's near the start of the second half that helped the Coyotes reach their largest lead at 64-50 with 15:39 remaining. Dickerson made two 3's in each half and finished 6 of 11 from the field.
 
Facing its largest deficit, Tellinghuisen got it going. He made all five 3's he took during a seven-minute span and almost single-handedly brought the Jacks within a point at 72-71 with eight minutes to go.
 
Daum gave South Dakota State its first lead of the second half at 76-75 with a pair of free throws with 6:13 remaining. Daum scored 12 of the Jacks' final 15 points of the game and made his team's only two field goals in the final seven minutes of action.
 
Tevin King made 1 of 2 free throws for the Jacks with 2:53 to go that put them ahead 81-79. Mooney countered with a three on the other end that put the Coyotes back in front by a point with 2:28 left. He added two more 3's on the Yotes' next two possessions that made it 88-81 with 51 seconds left that sent the record crowd into a frenzy. All three 3's came against SDSU's 1-3-1 zone as the shot clock was ticking down.
 
"That's what you dream about as a little kid," said Mooney. "Being in a full gym and hitting a big shot and the crowd going crazy. It was fun."
 
"You can see it when he plays, just the moxie that he has," added Smith. "He is just so confident and the guys are confident in him. He can get it going like that. He's a really good player."
 
Free-throw shooting in the final 40 seconds nearly spoiled the party. South Dakota missed five of eight, including two front ends of 1-and-1s down the stretch. Daum hit a 3 with 26 seconds left that made it 88-86 and was intentionally fouled at half court with 5 seconds remaining with the score 91-88. Daum made the first, missed the second and Trey Burch-Manning rebounded and was fouled for South Dakota with 4 seconds left.
 
Burch-Manning missed both free throws and Tellinghuisen rebounded. Without a timeout, Tellinghuisen turned, dribbled and threw up a shot from three-quarter court that missed to the right as time expired.
 
The win atoned for South Dakota's 73-72 loss in Brookings on the final day of 2016. Flack was injured for that game and Daum, who had 30 points, scored the game-winner with a last-second shot in the paint. But Flack's presence was a difference in this one. Besides providing 23 points, Flack was the main reason for Daum's 4 of 11 effort from the field. Flack was 8 of 11 and had five offensive rebounds to zero for Daum.
 
"I tried to be physical with him and keep the ball out of his hands," said Flack. "I was especially happy with how we crashed the boards on them. I thought we could do that with our athleticism. They made a run, made some tough shots, but we showed a lot of poise down the stretch. I'm proud of my teammates."
 
South Dakota outrebounded SDSU 37-27 and netted 18 second-chance points. Burch-Manning was the game's leading rebounder with nine to go with five points. Carlton Hurst added seven rebounds for USD. He also blocked four shots and had four points.
 
The Coyotes improved to 12-1 at home this season. The team's final home game is next Saturday against Oral Roberts, the only Summit League team the Coyotes have yet to beat this season. Game time is 1 p.m.