The South Dakota men's basketball team returns to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for the first time in two weeks to host Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. Thursday. In a pregame ceremony, junior
Matt Mooney will be honored for his 1,000
th-USD point that he scored Jan. 24 in the victory over South Dakota State. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.
Promotions
#LOVermillion Day: Celebrate our community as fans with Clay County ID's can get half off their ticket at the door!
Camper Reunion Night: All USD men's basketball summer campers are invited back to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center free. They will be welcomed onto the floor during starting lineups to be part of the pregame lineup announcements.
The Game
The Coyotes look to sweep the season series with Fort Wayne after topping the Mastodons 68-58 on their home floor on Jan. 11. In that game,
Tyler Hagedorn tallied a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds as
Tyler Peterson and
Trey Burch-Manning joined him with 12 points. The Coyotes defense held Fort Wayne to just 35.6 percent shooting from the floor including 3-of-20 from long range.
Fort Wayne enters with a 16-10 overall record and is in third place of the Summit League Standings with a 5-4 record. The Coyotes have back-to-back 20-win seasons and are 20-6 overall and 8-2 in the Summit League.
The Mastodons
Fort Wayne is 4-2 since losing at home to South Dakota on Jan. 11. Their two losses were an overtime defeat at Western Illinois and a two-point loss at South Dakota State. In their last game, the Mastodons topped Denver 91-63 behind 25 points from Bryson Scott. The victory improved Fort Wayne to 12-1 on its home floor, with the only loss coming to USD.
Scott ranks in the top-10 in the nation with 22.9 points per game and has made the third-most free throws in the country with 173. Kason Harrell averages 13.9 points while John Konchar leads the team with 8.0 rebounds per contest. Konchar, who averages 13.3 points per game, is the only active Division I player with 1,200 career points, 800 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 steals.
The Coyotes
South Dakota picked up its eighth road victory of the season on Saturday at North Dakota State, guaranteeing itself a winning record in true road games for just the second time in the Division I era. In the game,
Matt Mooney poured in 21 points as
Triston Simpson and
Nick Fuller each added 13 points. However, it was a pass from Mooney to
Tyler Peterson that helped seal the victory as Peterson swished a 3-point shot for three of his 12 points with 20 seconds remaining.
Mooney continues to lead the Coyotes with 17.6 points per game and ranks in the top-25 of the nation with 2.2 steals per game. His 56 total steals rank him No. 10 in the nation in the statistical category.
Tyler Hagedorn continues his breakout campaign averaging 13.7 points per contest as four Coyotes tally 7.8 points per game or better. Within Summit League play,
Triston Simpson and
Tyler Peterson each average double figures with 10.8 points and 10.1 points, respectively.
The Series
South Dakota has won three-straight meetings in the series and sits just one win shy of evening the series at 8-8. When playing in Vermillion, both the Coyotes and Mastodons have won three games apiece.
One Last Thing
South Dakota is the highest ranked Summit League team in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 at No. 6. The ranking is the highest the Coyotes have ever been in the poll and matches the highest ranking of a Summit League team in the poll over the last three seasons (Fort Wayne, 2016-17).
