The Game
South Dakota is set for its first two home games of the Summit League schedule this week inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. First up is St. Thomas on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

The game will be televised on Midco Sports where Jay Elsen and Brad Newitt will have the call. That broadcast can be found on Midco+ as well. There is a free stream available on GoYotes.com. Fans can tune into the game on The Coyote Sports Network with John Thayer on KVHT 106.3 FM in Yankton/Vermillion or by using The Varsity Network app.

The Series
Thursday's game will be the third time these two programs have met after St. Thomas made the jump to Division I last season. The Coyotes swept the season series last year, winning game one 90-79 in St. Paul and 81-60 in Vermillion.

The Coyotes
South Dakota opened the conference season on the road at Kansas City. The Roos held the Coyotes to 45 points and scored 62 points to take the Summit League opener. The second game of the trip at Oral Roberts was postponed due to weather. Tasos Kamateros and A.J. Plitzuweit scored in double-digits in the recent game at Kansas City. Kamateros led the Coyotes with 11 points while Plitzuweit contributed 10 points. Paul Bruns scored nine, Mason Archambault scored seven, Max Burchill had five, and Damani Hayes had three to round out the scoring efforts for USD. Freshman Miles Branch made his Coyote debut in that game and had one rebound in seven minutes of action.

The Coyotes have four players averaging double-digit scoring. Plitzuweit leads the team at 11.9 points per game followed by Kruz Perrott-Hunt (11.3), Bruns (10.8), and Kamateros (10.4). Perrott-Hunt did not play in the game at Kansas City due to an illness.

The Tommies
South Dakota welcomes the Summit League leader after the first week of play in St. Thomas to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Thursday night. The Tommies beat North Dakota and North Dakota State at home to start Summit League play. They were one of two teams to get two games in while battling the storm last week. In his 12th season at the helm, Johnny Tauer has UST off to a 11-4 start. Non-conference wins at Troy and Milwakee have boosted the Tommies' resume in their second season at the Division I level.

The Tommies lost four of their top seven scorers from last year, but Riley Miller and Parker Bjorklund are back, and freshman Andrew Rohde and Kendall Blue have provided immediate support. Behind Miller's team-leading 15.2 points per game, Rohde is averaging 14.5 points per game. Bjorklund averaged 24 points in the two wins at UND and NDSU and was recently named the Summit League's Peak Performer of the Week. Miller is a sharpshooter with 52 three-pointers and shoots 95 percent from the line. St. Thomas is one of the top-shooting teams in the Summit.

St. Thomas is in its second year of a five-year transition to Division I. The Tommies were not eligible for the Summit League Tournament last year but are this year. However, should they win, the Tommies would not be eligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament. In that case, the conference would send the regular season champion or the highest finisher if St. Thomas were to win the regular season.

One Last Thing
The Coyotes are trying to break a season-high four-game skid dating back to the loss at Air Force. In the last four games, South Dakota has averaged 65 points per game and giving up 78 points per game on the defensive end. The average margin of defeat for USD in the last four games has been 13 points. The largest margin of defeat came in a 21-point loss at Air Force and the smallest margin of defeat against Coastal Carolina in a one-point game. The four-game streak has coincided with the absence of head coach Eric Peterson who is recovering from an injury he sustained at his home.