HONOLULU, Hawai'i—South Dakota senior Tyler Hagedorn scored a game-high 24 points and Stanley Umude chipped in 17 in leading the Coyotes to a season-opening, 72-62 win against Pacific Friday in the first game of the Rainbow Classic at Stan Sheriff Center.
 
The Coyotes, competing in the Aloha state for the first time since 1996, won their home opener for the fourth consecutive season while the Pacific Tigers of the West Coast Conference leveled at 1-1.
 
Hagedorn, competing for the first time since the end of the 2017-18 campaign, notched his sixth career 20-point game and finished three points shy of his career high. He was 7-of-10 from the field including 4-of-5 from downtown and made all six free-throw attempts. He also pulled down three boards and had three assists.
 
"Last year was a long year, but I'm very happy with my decision and we've come a long ways and I'm really looking forward to this year and I'm ready to continue to be out there with my teammates," said Hagedorn.
 
"They're definitely one of the more physical teams we are going to see this year. They had some guys giving me some room on the perimeter and I shot it well. Credit my teammates – Cody [Kelley] and especially Kruz [Perrott-Hunt] and Hunter [Goodrick]. They really came in and had some good minutes for us today."
 
South Dakota used a 15-3 run down the stretch to turn a back-and-forth affair into a double-digit victory. Hagedorn opened the rally with a 3 that gave the Coyotes the lead for good, 53-51, with eight minutes left. He scored seven points during the run that included an Umude triple with 3:48 left that extended the lead to 63-54. Tyler Peterson made a pair of free throws that made it 65-54 with 2:44 to go.
 
"It was a tough matchup and Hags was so good offensively," said South Dakota coach Todd Lee. "That's a really physical Pacific team. They go to the glass, they set really hard screens, they seal, so I talked to our guys about who's going to be the tougher team, and I was proud of the fact that we were the tougher team tonight."
 
South Dakota won by making 10-of-21 from beyond the arc and 18-of-20 from the stripe. Pacific, which got a team-high 16 points from Georgia Tech transfer Justin Moore, made 6-of-15 from 3-point range and 12-of-16 free throws.
 
The Coyotes jumped out to a 12-5 lead and took a 33-31 advantage into the break behind a combined 23 points from Hagedorn and Umude. There were three ties and four lead changes in the second half before South Dakota pulled away.
 
The Tigers got 13 points and seven boards from all-conference guard Jahlil Tripp, but big man Amari McCray never got going. The 6-9, 300-pound junior from Howard College missed all five shots he took and went without a point. He had six boards, but South Dakota finished with a 27-25 edge on rebounds.
 
"He had a tough matchup tonight with Tyler Hagedorn," said Lee. "Our game plan was to stretch the floor with Hags and we did that and it helped early that Hags stepped out and made some shots early in the game. And then [McCray] got in foul trouble so he never really got in a rhythm and we did a good job, not just with post defense, but when we did go to double him, we threw them off rhythm there too."
 
South Dakota's opening day lineup included four seniors along with Umude, the preseason Summit League Player of the Year. Cody Kelley and Peterson had eight points apiece and Triston Simpson added seven. Kelley also had three of USD's five steals.
 
The Coyotes are off Saturday and return to the court Sunday to face the host Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors in a 9 p.m. (CST) tip. Hawai'i played in game two Friday against Florida A&M in its season opener.