South Dakota Basketball Party
Join us two hours prior and one hour after every South Dakota tournament game 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.
The Game
Top-seeded South Dakota and South Dakota State, the No. 4 seed, are meeting in the semifinal round of the Summit League Tournament for the second time in three seasons. Monday marks the teams' second meeting in the postseason since 2004, when the Coyotes beat the Jacks 73-69 in a NCC Tournament semifinal game in Omaha.
Tonight marks the third meeting between the intrastate rivals this season and both teams' stars shined during the series, though Coyote senior
Tyler Flack did not compete in game one held in Brookings. Mike Daum hit a game-winner in the lane with 2.8 seconds left to give the Jacks a 73-72 win inside Frost Arena.
Matt Mooney's three consecutive 3's down the stretch was the difference in USD's 91-89 win inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center back on Feb. 11. Daum and teammate Reed Tellinghuisen averaged 26 and 19.5 points, respectively, during the series. Tellinghuisen hit eight 3-pointers in Vermillion. Mooney averaged 23.5 points and Flack had 23 points (8-11 FG) and eight boards in the game two victory.
How They Got Here
South Dakota advanced to the semifinals Saturday with an overtime win against eighth-seeded Western Illinois. The Coyotes outscored the Leathernecks 10-1 in the extra frame. Mooney scored a team-high 24 points and Flack added 19 points, five of which came in overtime.
South Dakota State, the defending champions of this event, advanced past fifth-seeded Denver Sunday with an 83-73 victory. Daum scored 33 points and was 13 of 15 from the free-throw line. Tellinghuisen added 18 points and had a team-high nine rebounds.
The Jackrabbits
South Dakota State has won four in a row and seven of its last nine overall. They have reached the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament in each of the last seven seasons. Daum is the Summit League Player of the Year and the nation's second-leading scorer at 25 points per game. Tellinghuisen averages 12 points and has attempted 200 three-pointers this season. A.J. Hess, the team's third-leading scorer, missed six games due to injury late in the year. He has averaged six points and 10 minutes in three games back. The Jacks have set school records in 3-pointers made (301) and attempted (816) this season. Behind Daum, they are one of the nation's top free-throw shooting teams at 77 percent.
The Coyotes
South Dakota's 22 wins are the most since 2010 and are tied for the sixth-most in program history. The Coyotes have won seven in a row and nine of their last 10 overall. The team is 8-1 since the return of Flack, who has averaged 18.6 points and shot 59 percent from the field in his return. This is the fifth Summit League Tournament for the Coyotes, who are trying to advance into the championship game for the first time.
In addition to Flack, South Dakota's starting five includes four transfers who have started all 32 games. Three true freshmen in
Tyler Peterson,
Triston Simpson and
Brandon Armstrong have played extensive minutes off the bench as has sophomore
Tyler Hagedorn. Together, those four have combined to average 22 points on 49 percent shooting during the team's current seven-game win streak.
Flack and 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 won its conference is New Orleans of the Southland Conference. New Orleans was picked to finish ninth by Southland coaches and 10th by its SIDs.
News and Notes
Tyler Flack will be playing in his 100th game as a Coyote and would be making his 79th start ... Only six teams nationally have attempted more free throws than USD, which averages 25 attempts and 18 makes per game. The Coyotes would tie the program's 45-year-old, single-season record with 15 more free-throw attempts (record is 828 set in 1972) ... Mooney has scored the ninth-most points in a single-season in Coyote history with 581. He needs 27 points to pass Jack Theeler (1967) for eighth place on that list ... USD made a season-high 14 three-pointers (on 28 attempts) in its win against South Dakota State earlier this season. The Coyotes are a combined 9-for-32 from downtown in their last two games (4-for-16 Saturday vs. Western Illinois) ... USD has turned the ball over less than 12 times in each of its last four games (11 in overtime win Saturday).
Â
