South Dakota hits the road for the first time in Summit League play and faces St. Thomas at 7 p.m. Thursday inside Schoenecker Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
The Coyotes (6-7) played some of their best ball of the season in two home wins against Kansas City and Oral Roberts right before the holiday break. The Tommies (5-7), meanwhile, dropped a pair of road games at North Dakota and North Dakota State.
 
How to Watch
A free stream of the game is being provided by tommiesports.com/watch.
 
How to Listen
Carter Woodiel from the Coyote Sports Network is providing a radio broadcast that can be found on KVTK 101.5 FM/1570 AM in Yankton/Vermillion. A link to that broadcast is here.
 
The Series
South Dakota and St. Thomas first met last season, the Tommies' first at the Division I level. South Dakota won in Vermillion 70-43 and in St. Paul 73-46. St. Thomas has much of its lineup back from last year. The Coyotes, of course, feature a new starting five.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota put an emphatic end to a six-game skid by blowing out Kansas City and Oral Roberts to run the program's win streak over Summit foes to 11 dating back to last season. Grace Larkins started the party by scoring a career-high 31 points against Kansas City. The rest of the squad joined in against Oral Roberts when Larkins was saddled with foul trouble. The defense carried throughout, holding those teams to a combined 29 percent shooting from the field.
 
The Tommies
St. Thomas is seeking a signature win. The Tommies were 7-21 overall and 4-14 in the Summit last year, their first since transitioning from the Division III level. The team's best win in non-conference play was against Purdue Fort Wayne, a team that has two Division I wins this season. A 12-point loss at UNI was an encouraging start to the season and the Tommies lost at Illinois-Chicago in overtime. St. Thomas lost at Wisconsin by eight points.
 
St. Thomas is the top defensive team in the league statistically and foes are shooting less than 27 percent from the 3 against them, but points on the offensive end have come at a premium. The Tommies were 5-of-32 from downtown in a 70-56 loss at North Dakota and 5-of-17 in a 74-56 loss at North Dakota State.
 
Jade Hill is the team's top scorer at 11 points per game and like South Dakota St. Thomas asks for scoring from a number of players. Jo Langbehn, Sammy Opichka and Maggie Negaard each average nine points a night.
 
One Last Thing
It's a different team this year, but the program's numbers carry on. The Coyotes are 27-4 on the road in Summit play dating back to a loss at Denver three years ago. All four of those losses occurred in Brookings.