A career-high 30 points from Kruz Perrott-Hunt and a quality defensive effort propelled the Coyotes to their second-straight Summit League win with an 80-63 victory over Western Illinois Saturday afternoon in Vermillion. South Dakota has now won back-to-back games and boosted its record to 7-8 (2-1 Summit) while Western Illinois drops to 8-6 (1-2 Summit).
 
In the 28th meeting all-time between these two schools, South Dakota won its 19th game against the Leathernecks and has now won the last seven meetings.
 
With A.J. Plitzuweit missing most of the first half in foul trouble, Perrott-Hunt stepped up in a big way en route to a career day. Perrott-Hunt sank 11 of his 20 shots on the day including 4-of-6 from the three-point line. He was also a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe and hauled in seven rebounds – one shy of his career-high of eight rebounds. Perrott-Hunt recorded a team-high four assists on the day as well. Tasos Kamateros was second on the team with 15 points on 6-of-8 from the floor. Kamateros knocked down all three of his three-point attempts and grabbed three rebounds. Plitzuweit was the third Coyote in double-figures with 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field. All 14 of his points came in the second half and his two three-pointers came in back-to-back fashion with less than three minutes to go in the game. Paul Bruns scored nine, Mason Archambault scored eight, and Damani Hayes scored four points to round out the scoring efforts for South Dakota.
 
One thing that won't go unnoticed in these last two games is the defensive effort of Archamabult. On Thursday, Archambault held St. Thomas' leading scorer, Riley Miller, to eight points on three made shots. Today, he held Western Illinois' leading scorer, Trenton Massner, to seven points on 2-of-12 shooting. Both Miller and Massner had been averaging over 15 points per game prior to playing South Dakota. Archambault also recorded two blocks and two steals Saturday, tying a season-high in blocks set earlier in the year against LIU.
 
"He takes on every challenge and he was ready," said USD assistant coach Patrick Eberhart when asked about the efforts of Archambault on the defensive end this week. "Every time he was in the game, he competed against those guys, and he made the game tough on them and that's what we needed him to do. I'm proud of Mason and maybe it didn't show up a lot on the stat sheet, but his effort was huge."
 
South Dakota led wire-to-wire in the game, scoring the opening basket and never looking back. The 14th point for Perrott-Hunt came after he went on a 7-0 run by himself and gave USD its largest lead of the first half at 25-12 midway through the first 20 minutes. A jumper by Hayes with 15 seconds left led South Dakota into the locker room with an 11-point lead. Western Illinois fought back in the second half and cut the Coyote lead down to as little as four with nine minutes to go in the game after a pair of free-throws from Vuk Stevanic. The game went back-and-forth for a few minutes while both teams traded baskets, but a late offensive push from South Dakota and conversions at the free-throw line cemented the win. USD's biggest lead of the game came with 55 seconds left at a 19-point margin.
 
"I'm really proud of our guys," said Eberhart. "I thought we did a really good job defensively today and guarded. Offensively, we just kicked it into gear and made a bunch of shots and that's what we do. I thought it was a great game for us. To get another win in the Summit League – it's not easy to win in this league. So, we are really happy right now."
 
South Dakota, again, shot the ball effectively today with a 51 percent shooting percentage. The Coyotes made 29-of-56 shots overall and sank 10-of-19 from the three-point line for a 52 percent three-point percentage. USD converted 12-of-16 from the free-throw line.
 
For Western Illinois, Alec Rosner led the team with 16 points on 4-of-11 shooting. The other Leatherneck in double-figures was Stevanic with 14 points. WIU was held to 38 percent shooting and just 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from the three-point line. The Coyotes turned Western Illinois over 14 times and scored 18 points off those turnovers.
 
South Dakota will begin 2023 on the road next week at the North Dakota schools. First up on the trip is North Dakota on Thursday night at 7 p.m. and followed by North Dakota State at 1 p.m. on Saturday. North Dakota and North Dakota State are the bottom-two teams in the league standings after today. The next home game for the Coyotes comes against in-state rival South Dakota State on Jan. 14.