The Game
South Dakota goes for its first Summit League championship and the program's first conference crown since 2010 when the Coyotes face the IUPUI Jaguars in Indianapolis tonight on the final day of the regular season in Summit League basketball.
South Dakota, winner of five in a row, is tied with North Dakota State at 11-4 atop the standings. While the Coyotes face the Jaguars, the NDSU Bison will be in Omaha taking on the UNO Mavericks in a 7 p.m. tip. If Omaha was to beat the Bison, South Dakota would be the No. 1 seed in Sioux Falls next weekend. If both USD and NDSU win, the Coyotes would need a win by either Denver (at South Dakota State) or by Fort Wayne (at Western Illinois) to be the No. 1 seed.
IUPUI has won two in a row heading into its senior day at the Coliseum. The Jaguars could be seeded anywhere from No. 4 to No. 7 at next week's tournament. If IUPUI wins today, the Jaguars would finish 1-1 against every Summit League team this season.
The Jaguars
IUPUI is led by all-Summit guard Darell Combs, who ranks seventh in the Summit at nearly 17 points per game. He scored a game-high 27 points in a 85-74 loss to South Dakota in Vermillion back on Jan. 7. Fellow senior Matt O'Leary averages 14 points and six rebounds per game. Transfers Ron Patterson (Syracuse) and Kellon Thomas (Kent State) average nine points. IUPUI averages nine 3-pointers and 78 points per game.
The Coyotes
South Dakota has won five in a row and six of seven since the return of senior center
Tyler Flack, who has averaged 20 points and shot 63 percent from the field in that span. Sophomore guard
Matt Mooney is averaging 20.7 points in Summit play and may be the runaway pick for Summit League Transfer of the Year.
Impressive of late has been the play of USD's four reserves - freshmen
Triston Simpson,
Tyler Peterson and
Brandon Armstrong, and sophomore
Tyler Hagedorn. The quartet has averaged 23 points on 53 percent shooting (39-73 FG) during this current five-game win streak. Peterson (8.6 ppg) and Simpson (6.6 ppg) have been the team's fourth- and sixth-leading scorers, respectively, during the run.
One Last Thing
South Dakota closed out IUPUI with a 22-4 run in the team's earlier meeting back in January. South Dakota junior
Carlton Hurst sparked the rally with a block on Combs on the defensive end with less than seven minutes to go and the Jaguars didn't make a field goal the rest of the way. Hurst finished with a career-high 19 points on 7 of 9 shooting and pulled down eight boards.
