The Game
South Dakota will play its final home game of the year Saturday inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. The Coyotes welcome Western Illinois for Saturday's game, the team one spot below them in the Summit League standings.
 
The game will be televised live by Midco Sports 2 where David Brown and Shon Morris have the call. That broadcast will be streamed online through ESPN+ and the Midco Sports Plus app, both of which require subscriptions. A free broadcast will be provided 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
South Dakota leads the all-time series against the Leathernecks 17-9. In the 26 games overall, only 10 have taken place in Vermillion where the Coyotes have been victorious in seven of those games. USD last met WIU back on Jan. 24 in a three-point game that went in favor of South Dakota.
 
The Coyotes
The Yotes have righted the ship after dropping three of four games from Jan. 27 to Feb. 7. The Coyotes have won three straight including a 21-point margin of victory over St. Thomas Thursday night. South Dakota jumped out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back in an 81-60 final score. Mason Archambault recorded his fifth performance of 20 or more points this season after dropping a game-high 21 points Thursday. Kruz Perrott-Hunt added 19 points and Hunter Goodrick had 10 including scoring eight of the first 11 points for USD.
 
South Dakota closed out their near week-long road trip the last time they met the Leathernecks with a 75-72 win in Macomb. All five starters for the Coyotes scored in double figures and they claimed what was their fifth straight win at the time. Tasos Kamateros had 17 points and 10 rebounds in that game for his first double-double of the season. Archambault had 15 points in total while Boogie Anderson equaled his career-high of 14 points and dished out a career-best six assists.  The win on Jan. 24 was the fifth consecutive win in the series for the Coyotes.
 
The Leathernecks
In its first season with Rob Jeter at the helm, Western Illinois sits at 15-12 and 6-9 in the Summit heading into Saturday's match. The Leathernecks are coming off a 66-91 defeat to South Dakota State in Brookings Thursday night.
 
Western Illinois boasts a high-scoring offense at just under 80 points per game, third best in the conference. A foundation of Jeter's team is winning the rebound battle. The Leathernecks average the second most combined rebounds per game in the Summit at 38.9 rebounds per game and have pulled down the most offensive rebounds in the league at 322 offensive rebounds, an average of 11.9 a game. Trenton Massner has been a key in the offense in his first season at Western Illinois. The junior from Wapello, Iowa is second in the conference in scoring (16.3 ppg) and assists (4.0 apg). His teammate, Will Carius, provides a secondary threat with 14.8 points per game and the Summit's third best three-point field goal percentage at 36.7 percent from downtown.
 
One Last Thing
With Saturday being the final home game of the season, the Coyotes are currently 10-4 at home, 4-4 in Summit play, and have averaged 79 points per game inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Saturday is also our Native American student/alumni game. Approximately 500 representing that group will be in attendance. Archambault is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.