For the second-straight season, the South Dakota men's basketball team is playing in the semifinal contest of the Summit League Tournament. The Coyotes face No. 3-seed Denver tonight at 8:30 p.m. inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.
 
The Game
South Dakota and Denver are vying for a spot in the Summit League Championship game against the winner of No. 1 South Dakota State and No. 5 North Dakota State. That semifinal contest tips off at 6 p.m. Monday night.
 
The Coyotes and Pioneers split the season series with the home team winning each game. The Coyotes won in the Summit League opener on Dec. 30 82-71 behind 20 points from Matt Mooney and 17 from Triston Simpson. In the return game at Denver, the Pioneers prevailed 84-68. In that contest, Joe Rosga tallied 23 points and Jake Pemberton added 22 from Denver as the team shot 55.4 percent from the field.
 
The Opponent
Denver, 15-14 on the season, emerged victorious on Sunday night after topping Oral Roberts in two overtimes. Daniel Amigo tallied 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds before fouling out after 33 minutes of action. Ade Murkey added 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 45 minutes played as Joe Rosga tallied 18 points in all 50 minutes of action. Rosga banked in a 3-point basket with five seconds remaining to force the first overtime while an Ade Murkey jumper and Jake Krafka free throw created enough separation for the 90-88 win.
 
Joe Rosga, a first-team all-Summit League selection, leads Denver with 16.5 points per game, making 49.5 percent of his field goal attempts. Daniel Amigo, a second team selection, tallies 15.3 points per contest and a team-best 6.5 rebounds per game. Jake Pemberton is the final Pioneer to average double digits with 11.3 points per contest.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota is 25-7 on the season and is led by first-team all-Summit League selection Mooney and his 18.2 points per game. That point total increased to 19.8 points per game against Summit League opponents. Tyler Hagedorn is second on the team with 13.2 points per contest while Trey Burch-Manning leads USD with 6.7 rebounds per game. Hagedorn and Burch-Manning were both named second-team all-Summit League.
 
South Dakota topped Omaha 87-73 in the Summit League Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday night behind 20 points from Mooney and 17 points from Nick Fuller. The 17 points matched a career-high for the graduate transfer while Simpson tied a career-high with seven assists. Austin Sparks came off the bench and led USD with a career-best eight rebounds…
 
The Series
Denver leads the overall series 8-6, also holding a 2-1 record in neutral site meetings. South Dakota claimed a neutral-site victory against the Pioneers in the 1982-83, a 77-66 victory.
 
The Tournament
The No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 seeds remain in the tournament as top-seed South Dakota State topped Western Illinois 66-60. It took two overtimes but No. 3 Denver topped Oral Roberts 90-88 while No. 5 North Dakota State slipped by Fort Wayne 86-82.
 
That sets up the semifinal clash of South Dakota State and North Dakota State Monday night at 6 p.m. followed by USD and Denver. The winners will battle Tuesday night at 8 p.m. to earn the Summit League's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The game will be aired on ESPN2.
 
One Last Thing
After missing 13 games with a hand injury, senior Carlton Hurst made his return to the Coyote rotation in the quarterfinal round against Omaha. Hurst played 17 minutes grabbing four rebounds and hitting 1-of-2 field goal attempts. Prior to injuring his hand, he had started 52 straight games while averaging 7.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per contest. Hurst is the team's top on-ball defender.