South Dakota looks to make it a two-win week and a 4-0 start in Summit League play when facing Western Illinois at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Western Hall in Macomb, Illinois.
 
The Coyotes (7-7, 3-0 Summit) survived a late rally from St. Thomas Thursday to win a low-scoring affair 58-56. Morgan Hansen was fouled and made three free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining for the winning points. Meanwhile, Western Illinois (5-9) fell to 0-3 with an 85-63 loss at home against South Dakota State. The Leathernecks have faced all Dakota schools to start their conference run.
 
How to Watch
A free stream of the game is being provided by goleathernecks.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 has won 11 consecutive games against Western Illinois and leads the all-time series 21-3. The teams met three times last year including the first round of the Summit League Tournament where the Coyotes earned a 75-49 win.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota has rebounded from a six-game skid at the end of non-conference play to start 3-0 in Summit League play. The Coyotes had some of their better offensive performances in the first two games at home against Kansas City and Oral Roberts and matched St. Thomas' defensive intensity to win game three. Western Illinois and its defensive scheme is on deck.
 
Grace Larkins has been the Coyotes' leading scorer for 10 consecutive games now and has averaged 20 points over these first three Summit games. But she has gotten help on that end of the court during this current win streak. Freshman Walker Demers is averaging 10 points off the bench in Summit play and helped rally the Coyotes from a halftime deficit with eight points in the third quarter against St. Thomas. Morgan Hansen is 8-of-13 from the field over her last three games and is a threat from deep. Macy Guebert has found her stroke of late and continues to lead the Summit in assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
The Leathernecks
When Dawn Plitzuweit left USD for West Virginia, she brought Western Illinois star Danni Nichols with her. That left coach JD Gravina with two returning starters from last season including Jada Thorpe, the former Kansas State player, who can get to the free-throw line and averages 12.6 points per game this season. Elizabeth Lutz, an all-defensive team pick last year, is back but her scoring is down a bit from last year to 7.1 points a night. Mallory McDermott has a larger role this year and had 16 points Thursday at SDSU. Freshman Addi Brownfield appears to be an up-and-comer for the Leathernecks.

It has been a tough start for Western Illinois after finishing 14-15 last year with a 5-13 mark in Summit play. Starting with the four Dakota schools has not helped, but the Leathernecks get another crack at it Saturday at home against the Coyotes.

One Last Thing
It's a different team this year, but the program's numbers carry on. The Coyotes are 28-4 on the road in Summit play dating back to a loss at Denver three years ago. All four of those losses occurred in Brookings.