The South Dakota men's basketball team hosts Southern Mississippi on Friday at 7 p.m. inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.

The Game
In a rematch of a contest last year at the Pentagon Showcase in Sioux Falls, the Coyotes welcome the Golden Eagles to Vermillion for the first time. South Dakota won last year's contest 84-71, much in part due to a double-double of 18 points and 14 rebounds from Trey Burch-Manning.

A live stream of the game will be available on GoYotes.com/watch. Live audio is available on the Coyote Sports Network, including KVHT 106.3 FM (flagship) in Yankton/Vermillion. Audio is also available at GoYotes.com/watch or on the TuneIn app.

The Promotions

• Visit from Santa: Kids make sure you get to this game to make your last-second requests to Santa!
• Ugly Christmas Sweater Day: It is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, it's time to dust off that holiday sweater and show off your holiday spirit!
• Bring a kid to the game: Buy one adult ticket at regular price, get a youth ticket free!

The Golden Eagles
Southern Miss is 7-4 on the season and plays its third-straight contest on the road in Friday's matchup. Most recently, the Golden Eagles led Kansas State 31-19 at halftime, but ultimately fell 55-51. Cortez Edwards tallied a game-high 18 points while Tyree Griffin added 11 points and six assists.

Cortez Edwards totals 14.5 points per game on the season with Tyree Griffin adding 13.4. Dominic Magee reaches double-digits at 10 points per game, as part of a balanced scoring attack for USM aided by 17.9 assists per game, a mark that ranks 17^th nationally. Additionally, Southern Miss doesn't turn the ball over often, ranking second in the nation with a 1.8 assists-to-turnover ratio.
 
A member of Conference USA, the Golden Eagles were picked to finish in the middle of the 14-team league. North Texas currently is atop the win column in the conference at 11-1.

The Coyotes
South Dakota is 6-6 on the season with four losses coming by six points or less. Most recently, the Coyotes fell at No. 1 Kansas but saw a positive performance from sophomore Stanley Umude. The 6-6 guard totaled a game-high 28 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished four assists in the game. Junior Tyler Peterson was the other Coyote in double-digit scoring at 15 points.
 
Trey Burch-Manning, as he has all season, leads the team with 12.6 points per game. For the first time since the opening week, four Coyotes average double figures with Tyler Peterson (12.3), Triston Simpson (11.6) and Umude (10.6) joining Burch-Manning. It is the first time Umude has averaged double-digits at any point in his career. Burch-Manning continues to lead USD with 6.8 rebounds per game.
 
Burch-Manning and Simpson rank No. 1 and 2 in the Summit League with 1.8 and 1.7 steals per game, respectively.

The Series
The two teams have just one meeting between them, and that was last season's contest at the Sanford Pentagon. It is the second-straight season facing a current member of Conference USA. Besides Southern Miss, USD also faced North Texas last season.  

Looking Ahead
The Coyotes open the Summit League slate on the road at North Dakota State (Dec. 28) and at Denver (Jan. 2), before hosting South Dakota State on Jan. 6. The contest with the Jackrabbits is the first doubleheader with SDSU in the Division I era with the women's game beginning at 1 p.m. and the men's contest at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase at the USD Ticket Office, online at GoYotes.com/Tickets or by calling the ticket office at 605-677-5959.

One Last Thing
Umude has had a breakout month in December. For the month of December alone, he is scoring 15.5 points per game and making 59.6 percent of his shot attempts. Four of his six games in the month he has reached double-digits including a career-high 28 points at No. 1 Kansas. The performance at KU had Hall of Fame head coach Bill Self saying, "He was the best player on the floor tonight."