South Dakota Basketball Party
Join us two hours prior and one hour after every South Dakota tournament game, men and women, in rooms 8, 9 and 10 of the main hall of the Sioux Falls Convention Center (connected to the Sanford PREMIER Center). Snacks and drinks will be provided and a cash bar will be available. There will also be Coyote merchandise available for purchase. The rooms will close 10 minutes ahead of game time and will re-open 10 minutes after each game ends. For more information, please
email Erica Schilling.
Summit League Fan Fest
The Summit League will hold its inaugural Fan Fest Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. at the Sioux Falls Arena. Admission is free of charge and attendees do not need a game ticket for admission. Children and adults of all ages can test their skills, pose for photo ops, and be a part of team pep rallies throughout each day. Exclusive Summit League Basketball Championships merchandise will also be available for purchase at the Fan Fest.
Click here for more information.
The Game
South Dakota and Western Illinois are meeting for the second time in the Summit League Tournament and for the third time this season. The Coyotes, the tournament's No. 1 seed, beat Western Illinois 62-55 on Jan. 25 in Vermillion and 92-81 last Thursday in Macomb. South Dakota outscored the Leathernecks 47-23 from the free-throw line during the series and outrebounded them 89-71. The winner of Saturday's quarterfinal contest will advance to face either No. 4 South Dakota State or No. 5 Denver at 6 p.m. Monday. Those two teams compete Sunday evening.
The Leathernecks
Western Illinois lost 10 of its final 12 games after starting 3-1 in Summit League play. The Leathernecks are back in the tournament following a one-year hiatus and are facing someone other than South Dakota State for the first time since 2013. Western Illinois was a bucket away from winning the 2012 Summit League Tournament, but lost to South Dakota State. The Leathernecks won the inaugural Summit League Tournament played in 1984, but the league did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at that time.
Western Illinois is led by senior guard Garret Covington, now a four-time all-Summit League honoree. Covington is the Leathernecks' all-time leading scorer with 1,871 career points. He averaged 20.1 points in Summit League play, which ranked fourth in the league. In addition to Covington, Western Illinois features senior guard Mike Miklusak who averages 15.8 points and is the Summit's second-leading rebounder at nearly nine per game. Sophomore center Brandon Gilbeck averages 7.2 points and is one of the nation's leaders in blocked shots.
The Coyotes
South Dakota won its last six games, including four on the road, to earn its first Summit League regular season championship. An automatic bid to the NIT comes with the regular season title, but the Coyotes would happily hand that invitation back for a Summit League Tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that comes with it. South Dakota is 1-4 all-time at the Summit League Tournament with a win against Fort Wayne in the first round two years ago.
South Dakota's starting five includes four transfers who have started all 31 games this season along with its lone senior in center
Tyler Flack. Three true freshmen in
Tyler Peterson,
Triston Simpson and
Brandon Armstrong have played extensive minutes off the bench as has sophomore
Tyler Hagedorn and junior
Austin Sparks. Flack and leading scorer
Matt Mooney are first-team all-Summit League performers. Mooney was named Transfer of the Year and was joined on the five-man all-Newcomer Team by teammates
Trey Burch-Manning and
Trey Dickerson. Head coach
Craig Smith earned his first Summit League Coach of the Year award.
Exceeding Expectations
South Dakota was picked to finish seventh in the Summit League in a preseason poll picked by league coaches, media and sports information directors, while many other outlets picked the Coyotes to finish last. Of the 31 other Division I men's basketball conferences, the only team picked to finish seventh or lower in the preseason that has won or is leading its conference is New Orleans of the Southland Conference. New Orleans was picked to finish ninth by Southland coaches and 10th by its SIDs. The Privateers (17-10, 12-4) have a one-game lead over Stephen F. Austin with two games to go.
News and Notes
Mooney has scored the 10th-most points in a single-season in program history with 557. He needs nine points to pass Jeff Nannen for ninth place on that list ... Flack scored his 900th career point (908) and pulled down his 500th career rebound (502) in the regular season finale at IUPUI. His next blocked shot will move him into a tie for third place on USD's all-time list with Steve Anderson '05 at 143 ... USD's bench (Simpson, Peterson, Armstrong, Hagedorn) has averaged 24 points on 49 percent shooting (43-87 FG) during the team's current six-game win streak ... USD has outrebounded six straight opponents ... the Coyotes have turned the ball over fewer than 12 times in each of their last three games ... USD is 12-3 this season when making at least eight 3-pointers. The Coyotes are 7-1 when shooting at least 50 percent from the field ... USD would tie a 45-year-old single-season record with 43 more free-throw attempts (record is 828). Only three teams nationally have attempted more free throws than USD, which averages 25 attempts and 18 makes per game
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