SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—South Dakota senior forward Stanley Umude scored a career-high 41 points on 17-of-26 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Coyotes to a 91-78 win against rival South Dakota State Saturday inside the Sanford Pentagon on the final day of the CU Mortgage Direct Dakota Showcase.
Umude tied Iowa's Luka Garza for the most points scored by a Division I player this season. It is the eighth-highest scoring game in Coyote history and best since Turner Trofholz dropped 42 on Nebraska-Kearney in March of 2005. It is also the most points scored by a Division I men's basketball player inside the Sanford Pentagon.
South Dakota (1-5) netted its first win of the season while simultaneously ending SDSU's four-game win streak. Alex Arians' 18 points led four Jackrabbits (5-3) who scored in double figures. Baylor Scheierman added 15 points, Noah Freidel had 13 and David Wingett chipped in 11.
In addition to Umude, the Coyotes received 17 points from A.J. Plitzuweit and 12 from Xavier Fuller. South Dakota was 12-of-24 from 3-point range and shot a season-high 48 percent from the field (32-of-66) for the game.
"For our guys to get a win and to get a win against an rival, I couldn't be happier for our guys," head coach
Todd Lee said. "They deserve it and they've worked hard and gone through a lot this month."
USD jumped out to a huge start, leading 14-5 in the first five minutes of action. The Jackrabbits called a timeout to try to slow things down, but were unsuccessful as the Yotes pushed their lead to 22-9 after a
Ty Chisom long ball with 12:27 remaining in the first half.
Umude started to take over around the 10-minute mark in the first half, scoring on three straight USD possessions to push the lead to 35-17. Coming out of the under eight media timeout, the Yotes extended their lead to 41-20 after a 3-pointers from
Kanon Koster and Plitzuweit. With 1:26 remaining before half, Freidel was tagged with a flagrant foul two and was ejected from the game. Umude scored the next four points for the Yotes and took a 56-41 lead into the half.
"I just tried to let it come to me. First few shots felt good and I was as locked in as I've ever been," Umude said. "After the last two tough losses, I ws just thinking about changing my approach and my teammates and coaches did a great job of putting me in a great position to score. It was a great team effort."
Umude picked up where he left off in the second half, hitting a tough pull-up jumper to make the score 58-43. Umude sunk another difficult shot from the corner to surpass his career high of 32 set on Jan 30
th, 2019 at Purdue Fort Wayne.
With 2:48 remaining, Arians hit a pair from the line to cut the lead to single digits at 84-75, but that is as close as the Jacks would get the rest of the game. SDSU shot 43 percent from the field and went 10-of-30 from deep.
The Coyotes will return to action on Wednesday when they host Drake in their home opener. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
