VERMILLION, S.D. -- South Dakota men's basketball will face the North Dakota Fighting Hawks on Saturday inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Saturday is also senior day for five seniors.
The Game
The Coyotes will honor Tyler Peterson, Tyler Hagedorn, Cody Kelley, Triston Simpson and Brandon Armstrong in the pregame festivities. The men's game is also the second part of a doubleheader with the women tipping off at 1 p.m.
Scouting The Fighting Hawks
North Dakota comes into the regular-season finale with a 13-16 record overall and a 7-8 record in the conference. The Fighting Hawks defeated in-state rival North Dakota State in a thrilling game in which UND's Marlon Stewart hit a clutch buzzer-beater to give them the win this past Saturday. Last time out the Fighting Hawks have yet another thrilling game, unfortunately, UND was on the opposite end of the late-game heroics against Omaha losing in overtime 84-83.
In Summit League play, four Fighting Hawks' average double-figures led by Marlon Stewart with 18.9 points per game. Filip Rebraca is second in scoring at 14.5 points with De'Sean All-Eikens at 13.7 and Kienan Walter has averaged 11.8 points per game. As a team, UND is shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from deep. In games on the road this season, the Fighting Hawks are 4-12 while getting outscored by 8.6 points on average.
UND is shooting 29 percent from deep and 43 percent from the field. The Fighting Hawks average 14.4 turnovers on the road.
The Coyotes (19-9, 9-4 SL)
South Dakota enters the regular-season finale with a lot on the line. The Coyotes can be the No. 3 seed with a win over UND or an NDSU win over Omaha. The Yotes will be the No. 4 seed with a loss to UND and an Omaha win over NDSU. If USD is the No. 3 seed the Yotes will play at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and if they are the No. 4 seed they will play at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Hagedorn leads the team with 18.3 points per game while
Stanley Umude is averaging 16.8 points per game. Umude scored a season-high 28 points against Western Illinois and then followed that up with a 27-point effort against Oral Roberts.
Kelley (10.9), Simpson (11.9) and Peterson (11.1) round out the starting five that all average in double figures. USD is the only Summit League school that has all five starters average in double figures.
As a team, the Yotes average 80 points per game on 49.3 percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent from beyond the arc.
The Series
North Dakota leads the all-time series with a record of 99-91 while South Dakota holds an all-time record of 50-36 in games played in Vermillion. This is the 191st matchup between the two former North Central Conference foes. The Coyotes swept the season series last year and defeated UND 82-68 earlier this month on Feb. 8. South Dakota has won the past three matchups by an average margin of 14 points.
The Seniors
The five seniors have a record of 46-7 inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Peterson has played in 129 games as a Coyote the most in program history. Armstrong is second on the list with 127 games played and Simpson is tied for fifth with 122 games played. Simpson ranks third all-time with 3,713 minutes played while Peterson ranks seventh all-time with 3,357 minutes played. Simpson is ranks eighth all-time with 388 career assists, seven shy of seventh-place in the record books.
